Sr. Director of Machine Learning

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The company

The Mozilla Corporation is the non-profit-backed technology company that is on a mission to ensure the internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all. We design, build and distribute open-source software that enables more than 225 million people around the world to enjoy the internet on their terms.

The team and opportunity 

Mozilla Social’s vision is to develop an integrated platform that empowers users through seamless communication, content discovery, curation, and sharing capabilities, enabling them to stay up-to-date, explore new perspectives, and engage within a safe and enriching experience.

For 25 years, Mozilla has been committed to building an internet that is a global public resource, based on principles that safeguard privacy, accessibility, and transparency. As we venture into the social internet landscape, we are seeking a Senior Director of Machine Learning who is eager to address exciting challenges and craft the future of social media in favor of users rather than shareholders. With ample opportunities for end-to-end ownership, you will have a tremendous impact on people across various domains, platforms, and geographies.

What you’ll do: 

• Define and own the technical execution of our long term ML strategy with a particular focus on developing industry leading recommender system techniques. 
• Set the standard for deploying recommender systems in a way that aligns with Mozilla’s values which include privacy, fairness and explainability. 
• Build and nurture an applied ML community within Mozilla Social and the broader company as a whole. 
• Lead product-first ML contributions and innovations. When appropriate publish these in relevant industry and academic forums. 
• Create an inclusive environment which engages and challenges your team members, and exposes them to new opportunities.
• Communicate your team’s goals, the scope and risks of your projects, and drive the delivery of initiatives on clear timelines.
• Mentor and provide regular feedback to employees regarding model architecture, data quality, code quality, solving the right problem for the product, career development, employee performance, community building, communication style, and work-life balance.
• Work collaboratively with many teams including Product, Engineering, Design, UX, and Marketing.

What you bring:

• 15+ years of professional experience within the software engineering industry, working across a diverse range of companies and products.
• 5+ years experience of large scale recommender systems.
• 5+ years of management experience and working across multiple distributed teams.
• Expertise with large-scale ML model development frameworks.
• Experience in designing, developing, and maintaining machine learning products in a production environment
• A passion for the responsible development of AI systems. You have an interest in solving the recsys challenge in a way which empowers users.
• Comfortable driving multiple large scale concurrent projects, and able to focus your efforts to drive towards maximal impact.
• Proven team leadership skills leading and mentoring teams of diverse managers and engineers.
• Desire to grow and learn as a leader, grow and develop others, and get results through others rather than personal technical proficiency.
• Passion to resolve problems, manage risk, lead change, and facilitate collaborative decision-making.
• Able to hire, mentor, empower, develop, and delegate to geographically distributed asynchronous team members with different skills from your own.

Bonus points for…

• Exemplary scientific communication skills, both in written and presentation form. You have the ability to quickly distill sophisticated topics into concepts that are tailored for your target audience.
• You are a lifelong learner, and continue to refine and improve your skills when you see an opportunity to do so.

About Mozilla 

Mozilla exists to build the Internet as a public resource accessible to all because we believe that open and free is better than closed and controlled. When you work at Mozilla, you give yourself a chance to make a difference in the lives of Web users everywhere. And you give us a chance to make a difference in your life every single day. Join us to work on the Web as the platform and help create more opportunity and innovation for everyone online.

Commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging

Mozilla understands that valuing diverse creative practices and forms of knowledge are crucial to and enrich the company’s core mission.  We encourage applications from everyone, including members of all equity-seeking communities, such as (but certainly not limited to) women, racialized and Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, persons of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and expressions.

We will ensure that qualified individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, as appropriate. Please contact us at hiringaccommodation@mozilla.com to request accommodation.

We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race (including hairstyle and texture), religion (including religious grooming and dress practices), gender, gender identity, gender expression, color, national origin, pregnancy, ancestry, domestic partner status, disability, sexual orientation, age, genetic predisposition, medical condition, marital status, citizenship status, military or veteran status, or any other basis covered by applicable laws.  Mozilla will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics or any other unlawful behavior, conduct, or purpose.