Partner 20, Applied ML, Engineer, ASG

Founded in Silicon Valley in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz (aka a16z) is a venture capital firm that backs bold entrepreneurs building the future through technology. We are stage agnostic. We invest in seed to venture to growth-stage technology companies, across AI, bio + healthcare, consumer, crypto, enterprise, fintech, games, and companies building toward American dynamism. a16z has $90B under management across multiple funds.

We’ve established a team that is defined by respect for the entrepreneur and the company-building process; we know what it’s like to be in the founder’s shoes. We’ve invested in companies like Anduril, Airbnb, Coinbase, Cursor, Databricks, Deel, Figma, GitHub, Roblox, SpaceX, and Stripe. Our team is at the forefront of new technology, helping founders and their companies impact and change the world.

You will join a team of highly autonomous, senior ICs developing both software capabilities for the firm’s investing and operating functions, and external-facing products for the firm’s partners, portfolio, and investors. This role specifically involves leading the technical strategy, architecture, and implementation of machine learning systems that power the firm’s internal and external-facing applications. You will be responsible for the entire model lifecycle, from feature engineering and training to large-scale, low-latency serving and robust MLOps infrastructure.

The Applied Software Group operates in the mode of an internal startup. We own an exceptionally tight feedback loop and take on requests from all corners of the firm. This is a high-visibility role that requires a clear architectural vision, strong software engineering fundamentals, exacting communication skills, and the ability to engage and educate our firm on the technology we are developing and shipping.
This role requires an in-office presence 2-3 days a week in our San Francisco, CA office.

• Architect, build, and maintain scalable and reliable ML production pipelines (data, training, and inference)
• Collaborate with the Applied Software Group (ASG) team to integrate ML models into user-facing products serving the investing partnership and our operating teams
• Set and evolve MLOps standards for the team, including producibility, automated testing, CI/CD, observability, and model governance across the firm.
• Research and lead the implementation of model serving strategies (e.g., real-time APIs, batch processing) to meet strict latency and throughput requirements
• Drive the technical roadmap for core ML infrastructure, influencing platform choices and building cloud-native systems primarily on GCP.
• Operate with high autonomy, owning outcomes end-to-end, proactively identifying gaps, and raising the technical bar for the team.
• Set a high standard for code quality and system design, producing clear, principled, and extensible solutions that scale with the firm.
• Bring positive energy in every interaction with the team and foster inclusive collaboration
• Learn the inner workings of VC and work closely with the investing partnership

• 2+ years of professional experience as a Machine Learning Engineer or similar role.
• Strong mathematical intuition and problem-solving skills
• Expertise in Python and its statistical modeling ecosystem (e.g. NumPy, scikit-learn, etc.)
• Solid experience with major ML frameworks like PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX
• Proven experience deploying and managing ML models in a production environment using tools like Kubeflow, MLflow, Airflow, or TFX
• Strong understanding of containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes/GKE) as applied to ML serving
• Familiarity with cloud computing environments (preferably GCP), including data storage and compute services
• Low ego, high empathy, and the capacity to collaborate effectively with diverse teams

The anticipated salary range for this role is between $362,000 - $422,000, actual starting pay may vary based on a range of factors which can include experience, skills, and scope.

This role is eligible to participate in the a16z carry program and various discretionary bonus programs as well as benefit and perquisite plans including health, dental, vision, disability, life insurance, 401K plan, vacation, and sick leave.