Machine Learning Engineer - Knowledge Extraction (Contract 3 -6 months)

Who We Are?

Ground News is a platform that makes it easy to compare news sources, read between the lines of media bias and break free from algorithms.

In a world where political polarization and media distrust are at an all-time high, Ground News offers people a better way to stay informed and open-minded. Our mobile app, web app, and browser extension are home to a community of mindful newsreaders who use our news comparison platform to easily see every side of a story and engage with news beyond their filter bubble.

Unlike most news companies, our audience and our values do not align with any specific political ideology. Unlike most tech platforms, we don’t use manipulative algorithms to keep users on our platform to sell more ads. We are supported by our readers who pay for a subscription to build a more nuanced understanding of the news, the world, and themselves.

• #1 on Product Hunt (Oct 19, '20), #2 (Nov 17, '21), #2 (Mar 26, '21)

• Techstars portfolio company

• Winner of Digital News Innovation Challenge by Facebook

• Winner of Mobile Apps Showdown at CES

• Featured at Mobile World Congress

• Featured on New York Times, Financial Times, Newsmax, Forbes and more

• Our site has even been retweeted by the POTUS

The Opportunity - Machine Learning Engineer (Knowledge Extraction)

Type: Contract

Duration: 3-6 months

Location: Canada - Remote

We're looking for someone who can get excited about building tools to help people navigate and understand the vast news/information ecosystem we live in. In this specialist role, we are specifically looking for candidates who have specialized strengths and can lead development around an existing Ground News Product in the domain of recommendation engines, clustering systems, knowledge graphs, or a similar field. As part of the team, you will be at the forefront of  pioneering new AI applications, tailored for the news landscape. You will be working on novel ML products, with access to rich data sets consisting of 60,000+ articles ingested per day from over 50,000 news sources, and a significantly large number of active users.

What you’ll Do:

• Work closely with Data Engineers, Machine Learning engineers and software developers to help build and integrate AI solutions and related workflows into the platform.

• Lead development on a technical product (recommendation engine, clustering, knowledge graphs)

• Own and maintain ML projects across the full stack (front-end and back-end)

• Work closely with the ML Engineers, UI/UX Designers, and Product Managers to bring features to life on our web platform

• Building LLM-powered applications and subproducts related to the news

• Coordinate cross-team efforts for feature/requirement creation

Must Haves:

• Experience: Prior experience in building machine learning projects on at least one of the following domains: recommendation systems, clustering, knowledge extraction, with a preference for candidates familiar with lean and agile work environments.

• Full Stack Expertise: Excellent programming skills in Python and libraries like Tensorflow, PyTorch, etc. Experience with Neo4J is a strong asset.

• Backend Skills: Experience with MySQL, Elasticsearch, ChromaDB, AWS

• API Design: Proficiency in designing and documenting RESTful APIs, and developing APIs for web and mobile platforms.

• Soft Skills: Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to convey technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and vice versa.

Nice to have:

• Masters or Phd in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related field

• Hand-on experience on Semantic search pipeline , Information Retrieval concepts (RAG) and Document Indexing

• Hands-on experience with Large Language Models (Open AI/Open Source Models /Llama3/Mistral), prompt engineering and LLM deployment.

• A passion for LLMs and generative AI

What you might Have:

• A deep curiosity and interest in the political system, and the relationship between tech and media

• Experience using any of Ground News’ products (app, website, extension, newsletters)

Why work at Ground?

Co-founded by a former NASA engineer and Bain consultant, a position with Ground News provides an unparalleled learning experience both personally and professionally. At Ground, we prioritize growth: both for our business and team members. You’ll have the freedom to work remotely and play a key role in the development of Ground News products. 

This is an opportunity to work with a growing and mighty team that is fighting every day to build a world where cooperative, civil debate is the norm, media is accountable, and critical thought is the baseline of our information consumption. Ground is based in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, but this role is remote.

Ground news takes pride in being a harassment- and discrimination-free space for everyone, regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, nationality, neurotype, personal appearance, political affiliation, professional background, race, religion, or sexual identity or orientation. Our culture is one of collaboration, creativity, and diverse perspectives. We are committed to building and fostering an inclusive, accessible environment for everyone. If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding accessibility needs, please contact talent@ground.news, and a member of our team will be happy to help.

Apply Now 

Have we got your attention? Submit your application today and a member of our Talent team will be in touch with you shortly!