We’re on a mission to deliver riveting storytelling for all of America. At The Washington Post, you’ll help reinvent news. Our work is driven by a deep investigative spirit and enhanced by innovation to bring audiences closer to the stories that matter most.
About Our Team
The Washington Post is powered by the passion and talent of our people. It takes all of us to reinvent news. Beyond our award-winning News and Opinions teams, we work across many departments, including Brand & Events, Communications, Customer Care, Engineering & Product, Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Marketing & Advertising, Print Operations, and Sales.
Why This Role Matters
As a senior machine learning engineer, you will design, build, and scale production AI/ML systems that power the next generation of journalism. This role will focus on AI/ML platforms, Ask The Post, search, retrieval, ranking, recommendation, and generative AI-powered reader experiences.
You will work at the intersection of machine learning and software engineering, translating advanced AI/ML research into scalable, low-latency, reliable production systems that serve The Post’s journalism, readers, and business goals.
What Motivates YouYou value world-class journalism and want to build technology that strengthens that mission.
You enjoy turning promising machine learning research and prototypes into scalable production systems.
You are excited by AI/ML platforms, search, retrieval, ranking, recommendation, generative AI, and high-performance inference.
You are passionate about performance, reliability, scalability, observability, maintainability, and infrastructure efficiency.
You communicate clearly, collaborate well, and thrive in a feedback-driven engineering environment.
How You’ll Support The Mission
Design, build, deploy, and operate production ML systems across generative AI, search, Revenue Science and Personalization.
Partner with Applied Research Scientists to translate research models and prototypes into scalable, reliable, and maintainable production systems.
Design and build high-throughput, low-latency ranking and retrieval services supporting real-time personalization, recommendation, search, and intelligent discovery.
Build and evolve reusable AI/ML platform capabilities for model training, feature generation, experimentation, deployment, inference, model versioning, and monitoring.
Design and optimize CPU and GPU inference systems for LLMs, embedding models, rerankers, ranking models, and other deep learning workloads.
Develop scalable online and batch ML architectures for feature pipelines, embedding generation, candidate retrieval, ranking, and model inference.
Optimize model serving for latency, throughput, reliability, and cost using techniques such as batching, caching, quantization, distillation, and hardware-aware optimization.
Build and operate production systems for semantic and hybrid search, vector retrieval, retrieval-augmented generation, recommendation, and agentic AI workflows.
Establish strong ML observability across model quality, data and feature health, latency, throughput, failures, and resource utilization.
Provide technical leadership through system design, architecture reviews, mentoring, and shaping the technical roadmap for AI/ML platforms and production systems.
The Skills and Experience You Bring
Bachelor’s degree or greater in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Machine Learning, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
5+ years of experience in machine learning engineering, software engineering, or building large-scale production ML systems.
Strong programming skills in Python and experience with a production language such as C++, Java, Go, Scala, or Rust.
Strong knowledge of software engineering fundamentals, including data structures, algorithms, APIs, distributed systems, testing, and system design.
Hands-on experience with PyTorch or another modern machine learning framework and deploying deep learning models into production.
Experience designing and operating end-to-end ML systems, including training, deployment, inference, monitoring, and continuous improvement.
Strong understanding of low-latency online inference, including CPU/GPU serving, batching, caching, memory utilization, and performance optimization.
Experience building search, retrieval, ranking, recommendation, GenAI, or related machine learning systems.
Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, CI/CD, AWS, GCP, Spark, Beam, Kafka, or similar cloud and distributed systems technologies.
Experience with IaC, such as CloudFormation, CDK, or Terraform.
Experience mentoring engineers, leading technical projects, and influencing AI/ML platform and architecture roadmaps.
Collaboration makes us stronger. That’s why our offices are designed with open layouts, modern technology, and easy access to transportation. With certain exceptions for newsgathering and business travel, we work on-site five days a week.Compensation and Benefits
Wherever you are in your life or career, The Washington Post offers comprehensive and inclusive benefits for every step of your journey:
Competitive medical, dental and vision coverage
Company-paid pension and 401(k) match
Three weeks of vacation and up to three weeks of paid sick leave
Nine paid holidays and two personal days
20 weeks paid parental leave for any new parent
Robust mental health resources
Backup care and caregiver concierge services
Gender affirming services
Pet insurance
Free Post digital subscription
Leadership and career development programs
Benefits may vary based on the job, full-time or part-time schedule, location, and collectively bargained status.
The salary range for this position is:
$119,700 - $199,300 AnnualThe actual salary within this range will depend on individual skills, experience, and qualifications as they relate to specific job requirements. This position may be eligible for a bonus or incentive program, and a member of the Talent Acquisition team will discuss bonus payment terms and conditions during the interview process.
Learn more about The Post at careers.washingtonpost.com.
Skills Required
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Machine Learning, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
- 5+ years of experience in machine learning engineering, software engineering, or building large-scale production ML systems
- Strong programming skills in Python and experience with a production language such as C++, Java, Go, Scala, or Rust
- Knowledge of data structures, algorithms, APIs, distributed systems, testing, and system design
- Hands-on experience with PyTorch or another modern machine learning framework and deploying deep learning models into production
- Experience designing and operating end-to-end ML systems, including training, deployment, inference, monitoring, and continuous improvement
- Understanding of low-latency online inference, including CPU/GPU serving, batching, caching, memory utilization, and performance optimization
- Experience building search, retrieval, ranking, recommendation, generative AI, or related machine learning systems
- Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, CI/CD, AWS, GCP, Spark, Beam, Kafka, or similar cloud and distributed systems technologies
- Experience with infrastructure as code, such as CloudFormation, CDK, or Terraform
- Experience mentoring engineers, leading technical projects, and influencing AI/ML platform and architecture roadmaps
The Washington Post Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about The Washington Post and has not been reviewed or approved by The Washington Post.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is described as comprehensive, with medical, dental, and vision plans, robust mental‑health resources, and for Guild‑covered roles, employer‑paid single coverage plus an HRA for certain travel needs. Feedback suggests these features make core health benefits a reliable anchor even as specifics can vary by role.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is highlighted at a generous level for all new parents, alongside backup care, caregiver concierge, and gender‑affirming services in some postings. These family‑forward supports stand out within the broader package.
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Pay Growth & Progression — Recent union agreements secured across‑the‑board raises and significantly higher salary floors for lower‑paid cohorts, with automatic increases beginning in 2024. Feedback suggests these gains improved satisfaction at the lower end even as overall pay views remain varied.
The Washington Post Insights
What We Do
The Washington Post is an award-winning news leader whose mission is to connect, inform, and enlighten local, national and global readers with trustworthy reporting, in-depth analysis and engaging opinions. The Post is as much a tech company as it is a media company, combining world-class journalism with the latest technology and tools so readers can interact with The Post anytime, anywhere. Our approach is always the same– shape ideas, redefine speed, take ownership and lead. Every employee, every project, every day.
Why Work With Us
Rapidly growing, this team is committed to creating excellent experiences and products worthy of our tradition and our future. Our dedication to innovation, excellence and integrity are at the core of what we do, and why our employees are proud to call The Post their home.
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