Lead Machine Learning Engineer

Job Title: Lead Machine Learning Engineer Company: Halter Job Category: Machine Learning Roles & Responsibilities: About The Role. Halter’s Predictive Systems group is dedicated to the development of advanced models to provider farmers with the most accurate insight to optimise their operations. To provide farmers with the highest quality insights, we’re building upon the bleeding edge of scientific advancements with unmatched access to rich, novel data to develop a cutting edge agricultural modelling system. You’ll play a pivotal role in one of the machine learning teams within the group, where you could be building advanced models of pasture growth and land properties that power intelligent, modelling animal state, health and activity, and much more. Applications could range from remote sensing of pasture biomass, identification of animal heat events, to grazing interval simulation for advanced recommendations. You will be owning end to end development of machine learning pipelines, advanced contemporary modelling, to deployment and monitoring. You will work with great team\-mates in engineering, product and design to achieve outsized results. The impact of our work is profound, and we take that responsibility seriously. As a member of the group, you'll share our passion for technology and our commitment to optimizing the management of pastural grazing systems. You will be responsible for: * 🌱Modeling, from biological processes to farm operations: You will drive development of predictive systems to solve real\-world challenges faced by farmers. * 📚Research, from technical to agriculture: you will be required to conduct extensive literature reviews, and stay ahead of the curve with respect to both machine\-learning systems, and pasture science. * 🛠️Model development: design, dataset construction, training and optimization: Rarely do we utilize a model off the shelf. You will own the architectural design, and all phases of model development. * 👀Supporting your work in production: Halter engineers demonstrate a high level of ownership. We support what we build, and we learn from our systems behavior in the field. * 🧠Proactive innovation: As a member of the data discipline it is expected that you will exercise a high degree of creativity to proactively deliver innovative ideas. If this opportunity sounds like you, please apply below by sending through your cover letter explaining why you’re excited about this role and working at Halter, along with your CV, and we’ll be in touch! Why our team loves working at Halter: * Work that genuinely matters. Every now and again a company comes along that transforms an entire industry and leaves the world in a better place. Our team gets to be part of something truly meaningful, helping farmers improve their livelihoods, spend more time with their families, and build more sustainable operations. * Spectacular people solving hard problems. Our culture is designed for talented people to do work that changes lives. The team is filled with diverse, kind, and driven people who push each other to do their best work. You'll be thrown into the deep end, tackling complex challenges and building something tangible that solves real problems. * You'll grow here. Autonomy, mastery, and learning define how we work. You'll have the freedom to work on interesting problems, master new skills, and continuously develop yourself, both through your role and our personal growth fund. * This isn't easy, and we love that it's hard. Working at Halter will be the most rewarding and the most challenging work of your life. We move fast, take bold bets, and work hard to reshape an entire industry. As one team member put it: "Joining Halter is a bit like strapping yourself to a rocket ship, but it's an epic journey to be a part of!" Work Location: Auckland, New Zealand Availability: Full time

More concretely: * You have a deep academic and/or professional background applying machine learning to solve real\-world problems (e.g. a research oriented postgraduate degree in mathematics or computer science, with relevance to modelling with deep neural networks) * Demonstrated experience designing, deploying, and monitoring machine learning systems to productionStrong causal reasoning and an ability to design models that reflect real\-world dynamicsStrong data intuition and ability to work with noisy, high volume, high\-dimensional datasets * Fluency in Python and experience contributing to or working on complex, collaborative codebasesProficiency in contemporary AI companions and tooling for software and engineering productivity (e.g., Copilot, ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude\-code) * Excellent communication skills and a collaborative working style across disciplines * Some experience in advanced ML architectures (Transformers or SSM), agent\-based systems or recommendation systems is a plus, but not required. Join our team Halter is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace — a place where we can each be ourselves and do the best work of our lives. Research shows that while men apply to jobs when they meet an average of 60% of the requirements, women and under\-represented groups of candidates tend to only apply when they meet every requirement. If you think you have what it takes but don’t necessarily tick every requirement on this job description, please still get in touch and apply to Halter. We’d love to chat to see if you’ll be an epic fit! Key Skills: Machine Learning, Python Salary: Not disclosed