Staff Machine Learning Engineer

Posted Yesterday
Be an Early Applicant
Mountain View, CA, USA
Hybrid
172K-284K Annually
Entry level
AdTech • Artificial Intelligence • Gaming • Machine Learning • Software • Virtual Reality • Metaverse
Unity is the leading platform to create and grow games and interactive experiences.
The Role
Lead end-to-end machine learning architecture, production systems, forecasting, probabilistic modeling, experimentation, and agentic AI development. Build models for acquisition cost, lifetime value, ROAS, demand, and market outcomes; establish reproducible data and model pipelines; create evaluation harnesses for LLM agents; and own calibration, feedback loops, measurement, and cost controls. Mentor cross-disciplinary engineers and influence technical strategy across teams.
Summary Generated by Built In
The opportunity

Unity is building next-generation intelligence systems for gaming: systems that help AI-native teams understand the market and get the most out of the frontier models.


We are hiring a Staff Machine Learning Engineer to lead this effort. You will own the end-to-end architecture, build pipelines, systems, and models, and scale a cross-disciplinary team of engine developers, game developers, and machine learning engineers. The work spans market forecasting, outcome prediction, multimodal content understanding, evaluation, and agentic systems.

What you'll be doing

Technical leadership

  • Set the technical vision and architecture for our ML platform, from data ingestion, semantic layer and feature stores through model registry, evaluation and serving.
  • Make the calls that keep every model output reproducible and auditable: versioned data snapshots, model and prompt versions, and cost tracked per decision.
  • Define, lead, and spearhead engineering practices for the agentic era, including agentic development workflows and evaluation methodologies.
  • Mentor engineers from different backgrounds.
  • Partner with different functional teams and disciplines to translate expert human judgment into training signals. Shape the roadmap with the product team.

Modeling

  • Build predictors of commercial outcomes such as user acquisition cost, lifetime value and return on ad spend from large, noisy, multi-source signals.
  • Build forecasting models over market signals that detect emerging demand and estimate when a window opens, peaks and closes.
  • Deliver every prediction as a calibrated range with stated confidence, and own the ranking and portfolio logic that turns predictions into recommendations within a budget.

Experimentation and agentic systems

  • Design online experimentation with guardrails, safe exploration and clear human decision points.
  • Build evaluation harnesses for LLM-based agents, including automated playtesting and multimodal assessment of generated content.
  • Orchestrate frontier-model agents in production with strict data boundaries and cost control.

Calibration and measurement

  • Own the feedback loop that scores predictions against realized outcomes and corrects bias, coverage and signal weighting over time.
  • Make the system report its own error in plain language so that creators and internal stakeholders can trust it.

What we're looking for
  • Experience in machine learning with a track record of owning production ML systems end to end, from data to serving to measured business outcome.
  • Deep experience in performance marketing or ad-tech modeling: predicting acquisition cost, lifetime value, return on ad spend, retention or comparable outcomes.
  • Strong grounding in probabilistic prediction and calibration: quantile or interval prediction, coverage, bias correction and backtesting of forecasts.
  • Experience building LLM-based agent systems in production: orchestration, evaluation harnesses, prompt and model versioning, and cost control.
  • Strong Python and modern ML tooling, plus solid data systems fundamentals across a relational store, a columnar analytics store and an event stream.
  • Proven ability to drive technical direction across teams, mentor senior engineers, and influence decisions without formal authority.
  • Comfort building in a zero-to-one environment.
You might also have
  • Experience in mobile game user acquisition, LiveOps or monetization, on the studio or publisher side.
  • Experience with Unity or another game engine, or with automated and bot-driven playtesting.
  • Time-series and demand forecasting experience over noisy, multi-source market signals.
  • Experience with the Claude Agent SDK, Codex or similar frameworks for multi-agent software production.
  • Hands-on experience with BigQuery, ClickHouse, Kafka, Postgres, pgvector or their equivalents.
  • Publications or open-source contributions in forecasting, causal inference, calibration or agentic systems.

Base Salary Range: We determine the base salary range for this role based on your primary work location:


Zone A: $218,400 - $283,900

Zone B: $194,100 - $252,300

Zone C: $172,200 - $223,900


This range reflects the anticipated base salary for this position. Beyond base salary, this role may be eligible for equity awards and participation in our company incentive plans (such as annual discretionary bonuses or sales commissions). The final offer amount will depend on several factors, including geographic location and the candidate’s relevant experience, professional background, and skill set.


Benefits


At Unity, we want our team members to thrive. We offer a wide range of benefits designed to support well-being and work-life balance.


Please note: Benefits eligibility, specific offerings, and coverage vary based on the country and employment status.


While specific benefits vary, here are some of the ways we strive to take care of our eligible team members globally: Comprehensive health, life, and disability insurance | Commute subsidy | Employee stock ownership | Competitive retirement/pension plans | Generous vacation and personal days | Support for new parents through leave and family-care programs | Office food snacks | Mental Health and Wellbeing programs and support | Employee Resource Groups | Global Employee Assistance Program | Training and development programs | Volunteering and donation matching program


Life at Unity


Unity [NYSE: U] is the world’s leading game engine, powering play for more than 3 billion consumers each month. The top mobile games in the world, the most played PC indie titles, the most innovative console games, and virtually all of the top XR and Web Games are developed, deployed, and grown in Unity. Unity also enables teams across industries like automotive, manufacturing, and healthcare to design, simulate, and collaborate in 3D — closing the gap between ideas and reality. For more information, please visit www.unity.com.


Unity is a proud equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment and celebrate our employees across age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law. Our differences are strengths that enable us to support the growing and evolving needs of our customers, partners, and collaborators. If you have a disability that means there are preparations or accommodations we can make to help ensure you have a comfortable and positive interview experience, please fill out this form to let us know.


This position requires the incumbent to have a sufficient knowledge of English to have professional verbal and written exchanges in this language since the performance of the duties related to this position requires frequent and regular communication with colleagues and partners located worldwide and whose common language is English.
This posting is intended to fill an existing vacancy, and we are committed to providing applicants with updates throughout the hiring process in accordance with applicable law.


Headhunters and recruitment agencies may not submit resumes/CVs through this website or directly to managers. Unity does not accept unsolicited headhunter and agency resumes. Unity will not pay fees to any third-party agency or company that does not have a signed agreement with Unity.
Your privacy is important to us. Please take a moment to review our
Prospect and Applicant Privacy Policies. Should you have any concerns about your privacy, please contact us at [email protected].

Skills Required

  • Experience in machine learning with a track record of owning production ML systems end to end, from data through serving and measured business outcomes.
  • Deep experience in performance marketing or ad-tech modeling, including acquisition cost, lifetime value, ROAS, retention, or comparable outcomes.
  • Strong grounding in probabilistic prediction and calibration, including quantile or interval prediction, coverage, bias correction, and forecast backtesting.
  • Experience building LLM-based agent systems in production, including orchestration, evaluation harnesses, prompt and model versioning, and cost control.
  • Strong Python and modern machine learning tooling experience.
  • Solid data systems fundamentals across relational stores, columnar analytics stores, and event streams.
  • Ability to drive technical direction across teams, mentor senior engineers, and influence decisions without formal authority.
  • Comfort building in a zero-to-one environment.
  • Experience in mobile game user acquisition, LiveOps, or monetization on the studio or publisher side.
  • Experience with Unity or another game engine, automated playtesting, or bot-driven playtesting.
  • Time-series and demand forecasting experience using noisy, multi-source market signals.
  • Experience with the Claude Agent SDK, Codex, or similar multi-agent software production frameworks.
  • Hands-on experience with BigQuery, ClickHouse, Kafka, Postgres, pgvector, or equivalent technologies.
  • Publications or open-source contributions in forecasting, causal inference, calibration, or agentic systems.
  • Sufficient English proficiency for professional verbal and written communication.

Unity Compensation & Benefits Highlights

The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Unity and has not been reviewed or approved by Unity.

  • Healthcare Strength — Core medical, dental, vision, life/disability, and mental‑health/EAP offerings are positioned as comprehensive across eligible locations. This breadth aligns with large‑tech standards and is highlighted in official materials.
  • Retirement Support — A 401(k) plan with employer matching is part of the U.S. package. Retirement benefits are characterized as competitive and a stable element of total rewards.
  • Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave and family‑care support are emphasized, with indications of generous time off for new parents. These programs are presented as global in scope, with specifics verified by location.

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The Company
HQ: San Francisco, CA
4,500 Employees
Year Founded: 2004

What We Do

Unity [NYSE: U] is the world’s leading game engine, powering play for more than 3 billion consumers each month. The top mobile games in the world, the most played PC indie titles, the most innovative console games, and virtually all of the top XR and Web Games are developed, deployed, and grown in Unity. Unity also enables teams across industries like automotive, manufacturing, and healthcare to design, simulate, and collaborate in 3D — closing the gap between ideas and reality.

Why Work With Us

We believe the world is a better place with more creators in it. This is at the core of our business because we believe our technology can change the world. Our products give content creators the tools to not just entertain but to create innovative RT3D experiences and deliver better processes for almost every industry.

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