Lead Machine Learning Engineer, Headout
2-3 days a week in office
Travel experiences marketplace
Be an early applicant
Travel experiences marketplace
501-1000 employees
Be an early applicant
2-3 days a week in office
501-1000 employees
Company mission
Headout is on a mission to make travelling more fun & spontaneous.
Role
Who you are
- You have a minimum of 4 years of experience in machine learning engineering across different applications such as recommendations, classification, prediction, or natural language processing
- A strong foundation in ML fundamentals and techniques is essential. Proficiency in Python is a must, with experience in frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn, or similar ML libraries (Hugging Face, XGBoost etc)
- You have practical experience taking ML models from development to production, including data preprocessing, feature engineering, model training, evaluation, and deployment
- Experience with A/B testing and experimentation frameworks to measure and validate the impact of ML solutions
- You possess strong problem-solving skills and the ability to translate business requirements into effective technical implementations
- Your communication skills enable you to work effectively with cross-functional teams and explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
- Familiarity with large-scale data processing technologies (Spark, Kafka, Flink etc.) and cloud-based ML services (Vertex AI, Sagemaker etc) is a plus
What the job involves
- As a Machine Learning Engineer at Headout, you will play a pivotal role in developing AI-powered solutions that enhance our platform and create exceptional experiences for travelers worldwide
- At Headout, we firmly believe that intelligent algorithms can transform how people discover and engage with travel experiences
- Collaborating closely with multifaceted teams across the organization, you'll design, develop, and deploy sophisticated ML models across various applications including recommendations, search optimization, pricing, and operational efficiency
- Global Impact: Your algorithms will serve millions of travelers across 190+ countries, optimizing experiences throughout the customer journey - from discovery and decision-making to post-purchase engagement
- Diverse AI Applications: Work on a variety of machine learning projects spanning different domains. One day you might be improving our recommendation engine, the next you could be optimizing search rankings or developing forecasting models for operational planning
- End-to-End Ownership: Take ML solutions from ideation to production. You'll help identify opportunities where ML can add value, design solutions, implement models, and measure real-world impact
- Data-Rich Environment: Leverage rich, multi-dimensional data from user behavior, transaction patterns, content characteristics, and operational metrics to build comprehensive models that drive meaningful outcomes
- Tangible Results: See the concrete impact of your work through key business metrics. Your models will contribute to increased conversion rates, enhanced user engagement, optimized operations, and improved customer satisfaction
- Technical Innovation: As machine learning and AI technologies evolve, you'll be at the forefront of evaluating and implementing new approaches that keep Headout competitive in a dynamic industry
Salary benchmarks
Our take
Over 25 million people from over 105 different cities have purchased a ticket for something on Headout, the mobile-first travel experience and activity platform. It’s a digital marketplace where users can browse tickets to leisure activities in their area, and providers can in turn get help filling last-minute slots.
Unlike some travel and hospitality businesses, Headout has already bounced back and surpassed its pre-pandemic revenue (3.1 Yx oY) and growth (3.2 x YoY) levels. The key was to focus on domestic travel, a new vertical it intends to expand in future with new funding on the table. It’s also looking to aggressively grow its footprint to add hundreds of new cities over the coming years, having doubled its business team in 2023.
Headout is in a very comfortable position to do so: every transaction it carries out is profitable, and there’s plenty of runway on its current funding. This means the team can focus on building out new features for both users and providers. The quality of its product will be its key advantage over Airbnb, which has for a while now been developing a competing marketplace.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 5 rounds)
Feb 2022
$30m
SERIES B
Sep 2021
$12m
SERIES B
Total funding: $65.7m
Company benefits
- Unlimited mental wellness leaves
- No ceiling general leave
- Every quarterly 1-1 includes a `vacation time` item on the agenda to ensure everyone takes breaks proactively
- 50% off fitness class memberships
- Wellness programs once a month
- Online health platform(s) subscriptions
- Employee Assistance Program. We've got your back
- $500 `Headout Credits` to, you guessed it, head out to any of our experiences around the world
- Unlimited `Learning Credits` for paid courses and sessions to aid your learning & growth
- Access to conferences and meet-ups
- Community Lunches twice a week across all offices
- Travel across our 6 global offices if your role demands it
- If your role requires you to move countries, we will do whatever it takes to take care of you. We are not limited by any policies when it comes to getting great talent to join us
- ESOPS: We follow the standard 1-year cliff and 4-year vesting schedule. You can exercise your ESOPs anytime up to 2 years post-termination. For employees who have been at Headout for a continuous period of 2 years or longer, the exercise period will automatically extend to the life of the option i.e. **10 years**.
- Outside of teams that are remote-first, everyone else will be expected to spend **50% of their time in the office**. 50% doesn't mean spending 2.5 days a week at the office. It is entirely up to the individual and the team to configure what works best for them
- Non-remote teams will have complete flexibility to **work from anywhere** for extended durations multiple times a year. Longing to work from a beach for a couple of weeks, no problem
- You can access any of our hub offices at any time
- Everyone gets a one-time allowance of up to **$250** to set up a productive work environment for themselves outside of the office
Company values
- 👉 Headout > I
- 👉 Move fast, learn faster
- 👉 High standards
- 👉 Together is better
- 👉 Take ownership and initiative
Company HQ
Midtown South, New York, NY
Leadership
Varun Khona
(CEO)Previously founded and served as CEO of travel company Trippy.
Vikram Jit Singh
(CTO)Previously a senior member of the technical staff at Oracle.
Suren Sultania
(COO)Worked a spell as a consultant at PTOLEMUS Consulting Group.
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