Machine Learning Specialist (Research & Engineering)

About the role

Encora is looking for a Machine Learning Specialist to own the end-to-end lifecycle of AI development, from research and fine-tuning foundational models to building production-grade pipelines and APIs. The role sits in BGC, Taguig City, with a hybrid setup of two days onsite per week.

Key responsibilities

• Conduct deep research into state-of-the-art architectures and foundational models for problems such as credit scoring, fraud detection and personalization.
• Tune and fine-tune models (e.g., PEFT, LoRA, QLoRA) and build evaluation frameworks and leaderboards.
• Design experimentation datasets and production data pipelines, including feature engineering and data augmentation, and ensure high-quality data for training and inference.
• Deploy models using Docker and Kubernetes and CI/CD pipelines, and build APIs that integrate AI models with internal platforms.
• Implement MLOps practices such as versioning (DVC), drift detection and quality gates.
• Work as a core member of a cross-functional squad with Data Engineers, Backend Developers and Product Owners, driving technical value in Agile ceremonies.
• Maintain technical documentation and mentor team members through code reviews.

Required profile

• Undergraduate degree in a quantitative field (Computer Science, Statistics, Information Technology, Physics or Mathematics); a Master's or PhD is highly preferred for the research component.
• 3+ years in a similar role (Data Science, ML Research or ML Engineering).
• A strong bias toward model explainability and security.

Required skills

• Expert-level Python and SQL.
• Strong experience with ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow or JAX.
• Hands-on experience with Git, CI/CD and MLOps tools.
• Preferred: a portfolio of advanced AI use cases, familiarity with AWS, GCP or Azure AI services, and published research.