machine learning engineer for life sciences

Loka is a globally distributed tech consultancy based in Silicon Valley. Its teams develop generative AI and machine learning solutions for life sciences, including BioLM models and agentic applications for genetic research companies.

• Take full responsibility for assigned tasks and projects, ensuring accountability for outcomes and results;
• Lead client communications, gather requirements, manage expectations and communicate deliverables effectively;
• Understand business objectives and build solutions that help achieve them, along with metrics to track progress;
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Data Engineering, DevOps and Backend teams to ensure seamless integration of ML solutions;
• Design, build and maintain generative AI systems end to end;
• Develop LLM-powered applications and agentic workflows;
• Implement RAG pipelines, including data ingestion, chunking, embeddings and vector search;
• Establish evaluation frameworks and production monitoring for GenAI solutions;
• Measure output quality, accuracy, latency, cost and reliability while iterating on prompts, models and architecture;
• Wrangle, explore and visualize data, including data cleaning and analysis of distribution differences affecting post-deployment performance;
• Deploy, maintain and upgrade ML models and pipelines;
• Analyze model errors and design strategies to overcome them;
• Write and maintain technical documentation;
• Drive architectural decisions and contribute to high-level planning and strategy;
• Continuously optimize solutions for performance, scalability and cost effectiveness, especially within the AWS environment;
• Engage with clients to understand their business and technical needs, evaluate potential solutions, and define high-level implementation approaches and estimates;
• Contribute to internal engineering initiatives and projects, identifying opportunities for improvement and driving implementation;
• Serve as the primary ML specialist across multiple projects;
• Provide guidance and mentorship to junior ML engineers.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field;
• 4+ Years of AI/ML engineering experience;
• Proven experience building GenAI solutions, prompt engineering, fine-tuning and serving LLMs, search and embeddings, and developing agents with common patterns such as Agentic RAG and NLQ;
• Experience with frameworks such as LangChain/LangGraph, LlamaIndex, smolagents and strands-agents;
• Understanding of statistical, ML and deep learning algorithms;
• Solid experience with cloud ML services, preferably AWS Bedrock, AgentCore and SageMaker;
• Experience with containerization and orchestration tools;
• Client-facing experience;
• Deep proficiency in Python and core ML libraries and frameworks, including scikit-learn, PyTorch, HuggingFace, TensorFlow and Transformers;
• A track record of mentoring junior engineers and elevating team output;
• Confidence leading client communications and managing expectations independently;
• Autonomy, adaptability and a consistently positive presence on the teams you work with;
• Excellent English for meetings, customer calls and business communications;
• Nice to have: MLOps/LLMOps experience, preferably in AWS, standard tooling such as MLFlow and LangFuse, consultancy or startup experience, managing projects and adapting to different settings.

• Every other Friday off, providing 26 extra days off a year;
• Explore and Relocation programs, including three months of work abroad or full international relocation;
• Paid sick days and local holidays;
• Business English classes program;
• Continuous Learning Support;
• Fitness and/or Mental Health Subscriptions;
• Access to LokaLabs™, the internal research and development program;
• Defined career path.