Staff Machine Learning Engineer

Who is Flock?

Flock Safety is an all-in-one technology solution to eliminate crime and keep communities safe. Our intelligent platform combines the power of communities at scale - including cities, businesses, schools, and law enforcement agencies - to shape a safer future together. Our full-service, maintenance-free technology solution is trusted by communities across the country to help solve and deter crime in the pursuit of safer communities for everyone.

Our holistic public safety platform is comprehensive and intelligent, providing the actionable evidence needed to solve, deter and reduce crime across neighborhoods, schools, businesses and entire cities. Without compromising transparency or privacy, we are turning unbiased data into objective answers.

Flock strives to offer a career-defining experience where you can also make an impact on your community. While safety is a serious business, we are a supportive team that is optimizing the remote experience to create strong and fulfilling relationships even when we are physically apart. Our group of hard-working employees thrive in a positive and inclusive environment, where a bias towards action is rewarded. 

We have raised over $380M in venture capital from investors including Tiger Global, Andreessen Horowitz, Matrix Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, and Initialized Capital. Now surpassing a $3B valuation, Flock is scaling intentionally and seeking the best and brightest to help us meet our goal of reducing crime in the United States by 25% in the next three years.

The Opportunity 

As a Staff ML Engineer in Video Analytics (part of the Vision team), you will research and develop models and algorithms that allow our devices to decode video evidence like a detective. The ideal candidate is someone with experience in developing machine learning and custom algorithms for video processing and other related computer vision domains in diverse environments.

The Skillset 

• BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science, Industrial Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, etc.

• 7+ years of industry experience solving Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and/or Computer Vision problems

• Experience developing and maintaining end-to-end Machine Learning production processes, including data modeling, algorithm development, testing, and metric tracking

• Strong Python experience writing modeling, algorithms, libraries, and services

• Strong project management skills, breaking down work into tasks and milestones, providing recurring status updates to stakeholders

• Experience with SQL

• Basic git knowledge

• Basic bash knowledge

Feeling uneasy that you haven’t ticked every box? That’s okay; we’ve felt that way too. Studies have shown women and minorities are less likely to apply unless they meet all qualifications. We encourage you to break the status quo and apply to roles that would make you excited to come to work every day.

90 Days at Flock

We are a results-oriented culture and believe job descriptions are a thing of the past. We prescribe to 90 day plans and believe that good days, lead to good weeks, which lead to good months. This serves as a preview of the 90 day plan you will receive if you were to be hired as a Structural Engineer Flock Safety. 

The First 30 Days

• Shadow with an ML Engineer solving a customer issues, understand all the systems involved in the ML development lifecycle at Flock

• Start your first project: 

  • Work with PM to understand what is needed

  • Work with Embedded ML to understand runtime constraints

  • Perform due diligence and report on existing research, models and data available to leverage

  • Determine what modeling paths to attempt 

  • Determine what data may be necessary for the project

  • Work with ML Tooling to develop an annotation tool for this

  • Set up the workspace repo for the modeling R&D

• Co-pilot with an ML Engineer on at least 2 tasks

The First 60 Days 

• Find available data to start model development

• Model how the data will be retained in the database

• Develop an initial model and evaluation results

• Continue reviewing relevant literature determining best approaches (review at least 5 papers, providing summary)

• Review at least 3 PRs from ML Engineers’ work

• Co-pilot with an ML Engineer on at least 1 task

90 Days & Beyond 

• Create active learning pipeline and tools to intake and review new data, incorporating it into modeling datasets 

• Iteratively retrain model with new data (and making other changes), tracking performance improvements

• Report results to product demo meeting, specifying

• what work was performed

• accuracy and supporting samples

• what you are planning to do next to improve accuracy/representation

• Develop monitoring and alerts for the new prediction to make sure that the quality of the model is retained over time and new deployments

• Work with Embedded ML to develop validation tests

• Continue reviewing relevant literature determining best approaches (review at least 5 papers, providing summary)

• Review at least 3 PRs from ML Engineers’ work

• Co-pilot with an ML Engineer on at least 1 task

The Interview Process 

We want our interview process to be a true reflection of our culture: transparent and collaborative. Throughout the interview process, your recruiter will guide you through the next steps and ensure you feel prepared every step of the way. 

1. Our First Chat: During this first conversation, you’ll meet with a recruiter to chat through your background, what you could bring to Flock, what you are looking for in your next role, and who we are. 

2. The Hiring Manager Interview: You will meet with your potential future boss to really dive into the role, the team, expectations, and what success means at Flock. This is your chance to really nerd out with someone in your field. 

3. The Technical Assessment: Our technical assessments seek to test the hard skills required to do the job. Engineers may find themselves in coding interviews or architecture discussions, sales roles may present mock discovery calls, and leadership roles may craft 90 day plans. Your recruiter will inform you of which assessment you will be assigned and ensure you are fully prepared for your big day. 

4. The Panel: Learn more about the team, responsibilities, and workflows. You should be prepared to speak about past projects, how you collaborate and communicate with others, and how you live our values. Depending on the team and role you are interviewing for, you may meet with several teammates as well as cross-functional partners. 

5. The Executive Review: A chance to meet an executive and view Flock from a different lens. Be prepared to ask well-thought-out questions about the company, culture, and more. 

The Perks 

💰Salary & Equity: In this role, you’ll receive a starting salary of $190,000-$240,000 as well as stock options

🌴Flexible PTO: We seriously mean it, plus 11 company holidays.

⚕️Fully-paid health benefits plan for employees: including Medical, Dental, and Vision and an HSA match. 

👪Family Leave: All employees receive 12 weeks of 100% paid parental leave. Birthing parents are eligible for an additional 6-8 weeks of physical recovery time.

🍼Fertility & Family Benefits: We have partnered with Maven, a complete digital health benefit for starting and raising a family. We will reimburse $10,000 a year for adoption, surrogacy, or fertility.

🧠Mental Health: All employees receive an annual subscription to Headspace.

💖Caregiver Support: We have partnered with Cariloop to provide our employees with caregiver support 

💸Carta Tax Advisor: Employees receive 1:1 sessions with Equity Tax Advisors who can address individual grants, model tax scenarios, and answer general questions. 

💻WFH Stipend: $150 per month to cover the costs of working from home.

📚Productivity Stipend: $250 per year to use on Audible, Calm, Masterclass, Duolingo, Grammarly and so much more.

🏠Home Office Stipend: A one-time $750 to help you create your dream office.

🏢Coworking Space: If you’re not local to our ATL HQ, we’ll provide $250 a month to get you set up with an All Access Membership to WeWork (or a local coworking space in your area).

🐾Pet Insurance: We’ve partnered with Pumpkin to provide insurance for our employee’s fur babies. 

Flock is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diverse backgrounds and thoughts and welcome everyone to apply for employment with us. We are committed to fostering an environment that is inclusive, transparent, and collaborative. Mutual respect is central to how Flock operates, and we believe the best solutions come from diverse perspectives, experiences, and skills. We embrace our differences and know that we are stronger working together.

If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please email us at careers@flocksafety.com. This information will be treated as confidential and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the interview process.