Job Description

Toast is recruiting on behalf of a fast-growing public safety technology company that is transforming the global water rescue industry. Their flagship product is a handheld sonar device with built-in AI detection that helps first responders locate drowning victims faster and more effectively. As the company expands its global reach and develops new product lines, they are looking for a driven, hands-on Head of Machine Learning to lead ML strategy, oversee end-to-end development, and solve some of their most challenging embedded ML problems. This role sits at the centre of the company's core technology and strategic vision.

Responsibilities

Define and execute the machine learning strategy in line with evolving product and business objectives
Lead the design and evolution of signal processing and machine learning architectures for production systems
Establish technical standards, best practices, and development processes for ML systems
Evaluate emerging ML technologies and identify opportunities to strengthen product capabilities and competitive advantage
Provide technical leadership on architecture decisions, model selection, and system performance optimization
Oversee the development, validation, deployment, and lifecycle management of machine learning models
Oversee the design, optimization, and scalability of signal processing pipelines
Define model performance metrics and drive continuous improvement through rigorous evaluation and experimentation
Ensure production ML infrastructure, data pipelines, and supporting databases are robust, maintainable, and scalable
Oversee ML Ops practices including model versioning, reproducibility, and monitoring
Set standards for dataset acquisition, quality, governance, and lifecycle management
Lead planning and execution of field data collection initiatives to meet product development and validation goals
Innovate on methods for data labeling, preprocessing, quality assurance, and representativeness across operational scenarios
Continuously expand and refine training datasets to improve model accuracy and generalization
Partner with Product Management, Engineering, and executive leadership to define the AI roadmap and prioritize initiatives
Translate customer needs and operational challenges into innovative ML solutions and product capabilities
Provide technical leadership during customer demonstrations, field trials, and critical deployments
Serve as the organization's subject matter expert on machine learning, advising on technical direction and product strategy
Lead and mentor a high-performing machine learning team within the product development group
Set project priorities, resource allocation, and development plans to deliver on strategic objectives
Drive project execution through effective planning, risk management, and tools such as Jira
Build a culture of technical excellence, innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning through technical reviews and knowledge sharing

Requirements

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, or a related field
5 to 10 years of experience in machine learning, AI, and software development
Proven track record leading machine learning teams and delivering quality products
Experience with embedded ML on hardware or IoT devices
Experience translating real-world applications and customer needs into ML solutions
Strong proficiency in Python, with hands-on experience using PyTorch and Scikit-learn
End-to-end ML project experience, including data pipelines, data cleaning, preprocessing, model design, training, validation, and deployment
Experience with project management tools such as Jira
Experience working with cloud platforms such as AWS or Azure
Strong technical communication, documentation, and organizational skills

Nice to haves

Familiarity with sonar systems and sonar data would be a plus
Familiarity with signal processing is considered an asset
Experience with computer vision, such as object detection and Fourier transforms, would be a plus
Experience with IP strategy in AI innovation is considered an asset
Comfort working in open water settings year-round (with appropriate PPE) would be a plus

Benefits

Salary range of $160,000 to $180,000, plus performance-based incentives
Employee ownership opportunities, so you share in the value you help build
Health, dental, and vision coverage
4 weeks paid vacation plus a company-wide closure from December 24 to January 1
Relocation support available for candidates based outside of Vancouver
Flexible and dynamic work environment
Own the core algorithms behind a device first responders use in real rescues, where faster detection means victims are found sooner
Shape the AI roadmap as the company expands globally and launches new product lines
Build and lead the ML team from the ground up, with direct influence on the design and development of the end product