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The Role
Lead design, build, and productionize ML models and agent workflows. Own model selection strategy, AI governance (bias, compliance, audit trails), and evaluation systems using the GenAI Eval Framework. Coach teams on AI adoption, build monitoring/infrastructure, benchmark models for cost/quality, curate labeled datasets, detect drift, and translate model results to business value.
Summary Generated by Built In
Cox Automotive is hiring a Machine Learning Engineer Lead for the AI Accelerator team. The role spans three areas. The Lead builds and scales machine learning models across the company, from design through production, and brings deep skill in one area such as deep learning, generative AI, computer vision, optimization, or causal machine learning. The Lead also sets the model selection strategy for the team and owns AI governance policy, including bias checks, compliance tracking, and audit trails. The Lead builds evaluation systems that measure whether AI agents and models perform as expected, using the GenAI Eval Framework.
WHAT YOU'LL DO:
Key Responsibilities
Model Selection & AI Governance Strategy
Evaluation Systems (Agentic AI Framework)
WHO YOU ARE:
Required Skills
Required Qualifications
Preferred Qualifications
Leadership Expectations
USD 134,900.00 - 224,900.00 per year
Compensation:
Compensation includes a base salary in the range of $134,900.00 - $224,900.00. The base salary may vary within the anticipated base pay range based on factors such as the ultimate location of the position and the selected candidate's knowledge, skills, and abilities. Position may be eligible for additional compensation that may include an incentive program.
Benefits:
The Company offers eligible employees the flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company's needs, and its obligations; seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year; and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members. Employees are also eligible for additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave.
EOE, including disability/vets
WHAT YOU'LL DO:
Key Responsibilities
- Design, build, and maintain ML models, algorithms, and pipelines for training, inference, and production
- Use AI tools such as Claude Code to speed up coding, feature work, and testing
- Build ML infrastructure, monitoring, and documentation with engineering partners
- Turn model results into business value, and share progress with stakeholders across teams
- Coach teams on AI adoption, and lead AI transformation work, from tool testing to rollout
- Track new advances in ML and AI, and publish or present findings through papers and talks
- Design agent based workflows for training, data pipelines, and analysis, matched to team skill level
Model Selection & AI Governance Strategy
- Own the Model Optimization pillar of the agentic AI framework, and set the model selection strategy for the team
- Pick between Claude Haiku, Sonnet, and Opus based on task complexity, cost, and speed needs
- Build clear rules for when to use each model, and document the reasoning for each choice
- Track model cost across projects, and report spend to leadership
- Own AI governance policy, including bias checks, compliance tracking, and audit trails
- Work with legal and compliance teams to meet AI regulations
- Report on AI risk and model use across the AI Accelerator portfolio
Evaluation Systems (Agentic AI Framework)
- Build and run evaluation systems for AI agents using the GenAI Eval Framework (GEF)
- Check answer correctness, task completion, tool selection, and context quality, not just the final output
- Calibrate LLM as judge scores against human baselines through agreement analysis
- Curate golden datasets with human labels and short critiques for each agent type
- Compare evaluation runs before and after a prompt or model change, and flag quality shifts
- Build synthetic conversations to test agents before they reach production
- Watch for drift, and trace the root cause when agent quality moves away from baseline
- Set standards for how teams test and approve new models before rollout, and own the hardest evaluation problems as the field matures
WHO YOU ARE:
Required Skills
- Skilled in AI development tools (Claude, GPT- for ML work, with the skill to check AI output before production use
- Understanding of agent frameworks (AWS AgentSquad, AWS Strands, LangChain, agent patterns), from basic setup to custom enterprise design
- Knowledge of AI ethics, responsible AI practice, and governance rules for business critical ML work
- A steady habit of learning in AI augmented data science and responsible AI use
- Skill in comparing AI models on cost, speed, and output quality, and matching each model to the task
- Hands-on experience sourcing, deploying, and running open-source models in local or cloud environments
- Ability to set up model serving infrastructure and get open-weight models running end to end (weights, dependencies, inference)
- Skill in benchmarking open-source models against hosted/proprietary options on quality, cost, and latency to inform build-vs-buy decisions
- Comfort fine-tuning, quantizing, or otherwise adapting open-source models to task and hardware constraints
Required Qualifications
- Applicants must currently be authorized to work in the United States for any employer without current or future sponsorship. No OPT, CPT, STEM/OPT or visa sponsorship now or in future.
- Bachelor's degree in a related field and 6 years of experience, or a master's degree and 4 years, or a Ph.D. and 1 year, or 14 years of experience with no degree
- 6+ years' experience working in Machine Learning focused work
- Skilled in analytical thinking, consulting, requirements work, system and technology integration, and comfort with new technology
- Skilled in working with intent, clear communication, building trust, driving new ideas, and pushing for high quality work
- Other duties as needed
- A track record of leading new projects from idea to proof of concept
- Deep skill in more than one ML area and knowledge of new research
- Strong background in testing technology, studying competitors, and planning strategy
- Proof of sharing knowledge through papers, talks, or similar work
- Experience building and leading strong research or innovation teams
- Strong communication skills for both technical and executive audiences
- A strong network in the ML research community
- Experience with research partnerships and joint work
- Must live within a commutable distance to Atlanta
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in corporate research labs, innovation teams, or technology consulting
- A record of finding and rolling out breakthrough technology
- Background moving research into business use
- A strong name in the ML community through talks or open source work
- Knowledge of new areas such as LLMs, agents, foundation models, multimodal AI, or quantum ML
Leadership Expectations
- Build a culture of testing, learning, and smart risk taking
- Build agreement on research priorities while keeping speed high
- Grow talent through mentoring in both technical skill and research method
- Share complex results and their meaning with people at every level
- Lead by example through curiosity, careful method, and open sharing
- Connect new research to real business use
- Build the team into a known center for ML experiments
USD 134,900.00 - 224,900.00 per year
Compensation:
Compensation includes a base salary in the range of $134,900.00 - $224,900.00. The base salary may vary within the anticipated base pay range based on factors such as the ultimate location of the position and the selected candidate's knowledge, skills, and abilities. Position may be eligible for additional compensation that may include an incentive program.
Benefits:
The Company offers eligible employees the flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company's needs, and its obligations; seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year; and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members. Employees are also eligible for additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave.
EOE, including disability/vets
Skills Required
- Authorization to work in the United States without current or future sponsorship (no OPT/CPT/STEM/OPT or visa sponsorship)
- Bachelor's degree +6 years, Master's +4 years, Ph.D. +1 year, or 14 years experience with no degree
- 6+ years' experience in machine learning-focused work
- Skilled in AI development tools (Claude, GPT) and ability to validate AI outputs before production
- Understanding and hands-on experience with agent frameworks (AWS AgentSquad, AWS Strands, LangChain, agent patterns)
- Knowledge of AI ethics, responsible AI practices, and governance for business-critical ML
- Hands-on experience sourcing, deploying, and running open-source models in local or cloud environments
- Ability to set up model serving infrastructure and run open-weight models end-to-end (weights, dependencies, inference)
- Experience benchmarking open-source vs. hosted/proprietary models on quality, cost, and latency
- Comfort with fine-tuning, quantizing, or otherwise adapting open-source models to task and hardware constraints
- Experience building evaluation systems for AI agents (GenAI Eval Framework), calibration against human baselines, and golden dataset curation
- Track record of leading projects from idea to proof of concept and building/leading research or innovation teams
- Strong communication skills for technical and executive audiences and ability to translate model results to business value
- Deep expertise in more than one ML area (e.g., deep learning, generative AI, computer vision, optimization, causal ML)
- Must live within a commutable distance to Atlanta
- Proven history of sharing knowledge via papers, talks, or similar outputs
- Experience with analytical thinking, systems integration, requirements work, and consulting-style stakeholder engagement
- Experience working with legal and compliance teams to meet AI regulations and reporting AI risk
- Experience tracking model cost and reporting spend to leadership
- Preferred: experience in corporate research labs, innovation teams, or technology consulting
- Preferred: record of moving research into business use and public presence in ML community (talks, open source)
- Preferred: knowledge of LLMs, agents, foundation models, multimodal AI, or quantum ML
What the Team is Saying
Belinda
Manager of Network Automation
Tonya
Director of Agile Delivery
Chris
Manager of Engineering Support & Delivery
John Chapman
National Client Sales Director, Cox Automotive
Kib Yahyehyrab
Audit Analysis, Cox Enterprises
Jenny Arias
Marketing & Events Assistant, Cox Farms
Cox Enterprises Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Medical coverage spans multiple Aetna plan options with in-network preventive care at 100%, plus mental-health access including at-no-cost virtual therapy for those on the Cox Aetna plan. Added programs like PrudentRx for $0 select specialty meds, Hinge Health, and Calm expand clinical and wellness support.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave, fertility benefits via Progyny, adoption assistance with defined reimbursement limits, and childcare/backup care resources demonstrate robust family-forming and caregiving support. Supports such as Milk Stork and Care.com membership extend this coverage to practical needs.
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Retirement Support — A 401(k) program is described with a dollar-for-dollar match up to 6% plus an additional 2% automatic contribution for eligible employees, alongside financial coaching and student-loan tools. Administration via Vanguard and clear plan references signal mature retirement support.
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The Company
What We Do
For well over a century, Cox Enterprises has been shaping the future with daring ideas and values-driven thinking. Since our founding in 1898, our relentless spirit of innovation has driven us to disrupt industries and enhance the quality of life in the communities we serve. Through our major divisions — Cox Communications, Cox Automotive and Cox Farms — our people have countless opportunities to grow and make an impact in the communications and automotive industries, as well as in new ventures in agriculture, cleantech, digital media and more. As a privately-held, family-owned business, we know that people are our most valuable asset. We offer a supportive and inclusive environment with flexible career growth, amazing benefits and work-life balance at the forefront. Our mission, our ways of working and our commitment to people are what make our workplace culture remarkably flexible and resilient. Join us to build a better future and make your mark.
Why Work With Us
At our core, Cox is a technology company that values human relationships. We know people feel most empowered when their work has meaning, when they feel respected and have opportunities to grow. “Career satisfaction” is not enough at Cox — we’re here to help you find balance, live well and achieve your career goals even as they change over time.
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Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
Every person has different working styles and preferences — and we aim to empower teams to work where they are most comfortable. Some roles require in-person work, but for those that can be performed remotely, we offer flexibility.
Typical time on-site:
Flexible
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