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About This Role
At Netflix, our mission is to entertain the world. Together, we are writing the next episode \- pushing the boundaries of storytelling, global fandom and making the unimaginable a reality. We are a dream team obsessed with the uncomfortable excitement of discovering what happens when you merge creativity, intuition and cutting\-edge technology. Come be a part of what’s next.
In 2022 we launched a new lower\-priced, ad\-supported tier, and we are building an in\-house, world\-class ad\-tech ecosystem to give our members more choice and to offer advertisers a premium, better\-than\-linear\-TV experience. We are looking for the founding members of this new business area for Netflix.
The Ads Forecasting team builds the predictive foundation of the Netflix ads business — the models that tell us, before a campaign ever runs, how much inventory is available and how a campaign will deliver. We forecast supply and demand across audiences, ad products, and formats, and we predict campaign outcomes such as maximum availability, delivery confidence, reach, and frequency, accounting for the ad\-serving optimizations that shape delivery. Our forecasts power media planning, underwriting, budget planning, yield, and the public API.
This is a brand\-new, foundational role. You will build the machine learning models that augment our simulation\-based engine for predicting campaign delivery — turning a slow, rules\-based simulation into fast, accurate, learnable models of how campaigns deliver against real inventory. You'll own the modeling and prototyping end\-to\-end and partner closely with our ML engineering team to take models to production.
In this role, you will:
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- Build, prototype, and iterate on supervised machine learning models that predict campaign delivery outcomes — delivery risk, reach, frequency, and contention — to replace the current simulation engine.
- Model demand\-side campaign outcomes while incorporating supply\-side signals , so the models reason about how well available inventory matches what advertisers are trying to achieve (targeting, frequency caps, contention, pacing).
- Design rigorous offline and online evaluation frameworks to measure model accuracy, robustness to seasonality and distribution shift, and lift over the simulation baseline.
- Own feature engineering and contribute to the team's feature store — turning ad\-serving logs, campaign attributes, and supply signals into reusable, well\-documented features.
- Prioritize explainability and interpretability : your models' outputs must be defensible to sales and media\-planning stakeholders making real booking and underwriting decisions.
- Partner with ML engineers to deploy models at scale and to monitor production model health and drift , feeding monitoring insights back into the next modeling iteration.
- Collaborate with cross\-functional partners across product, engineering, and sales to define objectives, constraints, and trade\-offs, and to drive adoption of ML\-driven forecasts.
- Communicate technical decisions, trade\-offs, and results clearly to both technical and non\-technical audiences at all levels of the company.
We are looking for:
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- Advanced degree (PhD or Master's) in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field.
- 5\+ years of relevant experience building machine learning models on large\-scale data.
- Deep expertise in supervised learning (e.g. gradient\-boosted trees, regression, and related methods) with a strong bias toward interpretable, explainable models .
- Strong feature engineering skills and familiarity with feature stores and standard ML lifecycle practice (versioning, evaluation, monitoring, retraining).
- Proven ability to prototype algorithms and validate them rigorously against production data.
- Strong programming skills in Python and strong SQL .
- Working knowledge of ad\-serving and campaign concepts — how campaigns are delivered and what creates delivery risk: targeting, frequency caps, contention, bidding, pacing, budget planning, and the core campaign objects/attributes; and the metrics that matter (reach, frequency, impressions, clicks, outcomes). You should understand both the supply side (ad\-serving rules and inventory behavior) and the demand side (campaign attributes and advertiser goals). Ads experience is strongly preferred.
- Ability to work independently, drive your own projects, and make compelling cases for prioritization.
- Ability to communicate technical and statistical concepts clearly to audiences at many levels.
- Embodies the Netflix values while bringing a new perspective to continue improving our culture.
Nice to have:
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- Experience at a DSP, SSP, or publisher\-side ad platform where predicting campaign outcomes at scale is a core science problem.
- Familiarity with our ML stack (Metaflow) or comparable large\-scale ML tooling.
- Experience partnering with ML engineers to ship and monitor production ML systems.
- Experience creating data products, dashboards, or explainability tooling for non\-technical stakeholders.
- Experience applying GenAI to boost developer/research productivity.
Generally, our compensation structure consists solely of an annual salary; we do not have bonuses. You choose each year how much of your compensation you want in salary versus stock options. To determine your personal top of market compensation, we rely on market indicators and consider your specific job family, background, skills, and experience to determine your compensation in the market range. The range for this role is $466,000\.00 \- $750,000\.00\. This compensation range will vary based on location.
Netflix provides comprehensive benefits including Health Plans, Mental Health support, a 401(k) Retirement Plan with employer match, Stock Option Program, Disability Programs, Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts, Family\-forming benefits, and Life and Serious Injury Benefits. We also offer paid leave of absence programs. Full\-time hourly employees accrue 35 days annually for paid time off to be used for vacation, holidays, and sick paid time off. Full\-time salaried employees are immediately entitled to flexible time off. See more details about our Benefits here .
Netflix is a unique culture and environment. Learn more here .
Inclusion is a Netflix value and we strive to host a meaningful interview experience for all candidates. If you want an accommodation/adjustment for a disability or any other reason during the hiring process, please send a request to your recruiting partner.
We are an equal\-opportunity employer and celebrate diversity, recognizing that diversity builds stronger teams. We approach diversity and inclusion seriously and thoughtfully. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.
Job is open for no less than 7 days and will be removed when the position is filled.
Salary Context
This $466K-$750K range is above the 75th percentile for AI/ML Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $180K across 2130 roles with salary data).
View full AI/ML Engineer salary data →Role Details
About This Role
AI/ML Engineers build and deploy machine learning models in production. They work across the full ML lifecycle: data pipelines, model training, evaluation, and serving infrastructure. The role has evolved significantly over the past two years. Where ML Engineers once spent most of their time on model architecture, the job now tilts heavily toward inference optimization, cost management, and integrating LLM capabilities into existing systems. Companies want engineers who can ship production systems, and the experimenter-only role is fading fast.
Day-to-day, you're writing training pipelines, debugging data quality issues, setting up evaluation frameworks, and figuring out why your model performs differently in staging than it did on your dev set. The best ML engineers are obsessive about reproducibility and measurement. They instrument everything. They know that a model is only as good as the data feeding it and the infrastructure serving it.
Across the 4,133 AI roles we're tracking, AI/ML Engineer positions make up 69% of the market. At Netflix, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week might include: debugging a data pipeline that's silently dropping 3% of training examples, running A/B tests on a new model version, writing documentation for a feature flag system that lets you roll back model deployments, and reviewing a junior engineer's PR for a new evaluation metric. Meetings tend to be cross-functional since ML touches product, engineering, and data teams.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
Skills Required
Python and PyTorch dominate the requirements. Most roles expect experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and familiarity with ML frameworks like TensorFlow or JAX. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) has become a top-3 skill requirement as companies integrate LLMs into their products. Docker and Kubernetes show up in about a third of postings, reflecting the production focus of the role.
Beyond the core stack, employers increasingly want experience with experiment tracking tools (MLflow, Weights & Biases), feature stores, and vector databases. Fine-tuning experience is valuable but less common than you'd think from reading Twitter. Most production LLM work is RAG and prompt engineering, not fine-tuning. If you have both, you're in a strong position.
Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
Compensation Benchmarks
AI/ML Engineer roles pay a median of $185,000 based on 13,200 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $165,778. This role's midpoint ($608K) sits 229% above the category median. Disclosed range: $466K to $750K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $200,700. Top-quartile compensation starts at $254,000. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($274,200) and AI Engineering Manager ($268,700). By seniority level: Entry: $97,760; Mid: $165,778; Senior: $227,400; Director: $250,000; VP: $250,000.
Netflix AI Hiring
Netflix has 8 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI Software Engineer, AI/ML Engineer, Data Scientist, AI Product Manager. Positions span Los Gatos, CA, US, Remote, US, New York, NY, US. Compensation range: $600K - $1066K.
Remote Work Context
Remote AI roles pay a median of $173,300 across 2,012 positions. About 14% of all AI roles offer remote work.
Career Path
Common paths into AI/ML Engineer roles include Data Scientist, Software Engineer, Research Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward ML Architect, AI Engineering Manager, Principal ML Engineer.
The fastest path into ML engineering is through software engineering with a self-directed ML education. A CS degree helps, but production engineering skills matter more than academic credentials. Build something that works, deploy it, and measure it. That portfolio project is worth more than a Coursera certificate. For career growth, the fork comes around the senior level: go deep on technical complexity (staff/principal track) or move into managing ML teams.
What to Expect in Interviews
Expect system design questions around ML pipelines: how you'd build a training pipeline for a specific use case, handle data drift, or design A/B testing infrastructure for model deployments. Coding rounds typically involve Python, with emphasis on data manipulation (pandas, numpy) and algorithm implementation. Take-home assignments often ask you to build an end-to-end ML pipeline from raw data to deployed model.
When evaluating opportunities: Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 4,133 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 106 entry-level, 1,901 mid-level, 1,663 senior, and 463 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 14% of the market (583 positions). The remaining 3,532 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $200,700. Top-quartile compensation starts at $254,000. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($274,200 median, 57 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($268,700 median, 42 roles); Research Engineer ($260,000 median, 442 roles).
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 4,133 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,865), Data Scientist (339), AI Software Engineer (313). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (106) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,901) and senior (1,663) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 463 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 14% of all AI roles (583 positions), with 3,532 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $200,700. Top-quartile roles start at $254,000, and the 90th percentile reaches $307,500. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $274,200 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (2,128 postings), Aws (1,324 postings), Azure (1,003 postings), Rag (916 postings), Gcp (817 postings), Pytorch (655 postings), Prompt Engineering (639 postings), Claude (571 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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