Senior ML Research Engineer, NZ

Job description

Note: Partly is headquartered in Austin, TX with offices in London, UK, Christchurch, NZ and Auckland, NZ. Wherever you're based, we'll connect you with your nearest office for onboarding, and fly you to join the full team for our quarterly "Season Openers" (we cover travel and accommodation). If you're relocating to join us, we can also assist with relocation costs. 🚀 OUR STORY Partly is connecting the world's parts, and we're doing that by building the AI infrastructure layer for the global repair industry, starting with the $2tn automotive market. Our frontier model, Interpreter, is the world's first AI purpose-built to understand vehicle damage and the parts needed to fix it. Thousands of businesses across the global repair supply chain already rely on it. Founded by ex-Rocket Lab engineers, we've tripled in size in the last 18 months and have recently raised a $50m Series B led by DST Global (Anthropic, Airbnb, Meta, TikTok, Spotify) and including Blackbird Ventures (Canva, CultureAmp etc.), WNDR, Activant Capital, Icehouse Ventures, Square Peg, Airtree, and Ecliptic Venture Capital. We're headquartered in Austin, with offices in New Zealand and London. We're continuing to build a world-class team ensuring Partly is a place where people can do the best work of their lives. We're proud of the culture we've built, and our values are lived throughout every experience. Want to learn more about the problems we're solving and the culture we're building at Partly? Hear directly from our team here: https://shorturl.at/iAFUX 🖍️ THIS ROLE The Senior ML Research Engineer will build and ship machine learning and algorithmic solutions to real problems in the vehicle and parts domain. You’ll report to Abram Spamers and work closely with engineering and product partners to take ambiguous inputs (noisy data, edge cases, shifting constraints) and turn them into measurable, production-grade outcomes. A core part of this role will be helping us build a foundational model for the vehicle and parts problem space—one that can be adapted across multiple downstream tasks and product surfaces, and that improves over time as we expand data and evaluation. This role is for someone who wants to be judged by what ships: strong baselines, strong evaluation, reliable systems, and improvements that compound over time. 💻 WHAT WILL YOU DO - Ship applied ML solutions end-to-end. Own a problem area from framing through production rollout, monitoring, and iteration. - Design evaluation that makes progress undeniable. Build gold datasets and metrics that reflect real-world performance. - Blend ML and algorithms pragmatically. Use the right tools: modeling, ranking, classification, retrieval, graph/heuristic methods, LLMs, and domain-specific algorithms where they outperform learning. - Build for production constraints. Consider latency, scale, failure modes, observability, and safe rollout plans as part of the core deliverable. - Work across teams to drive adoption. Partner with product and engineering so the solution actually changes outcomes, not just metrics. - Raise technical standards by example. Reproducible experiments, crisp docs, thoughtful reviews, and clear trade-offs that keep velocity high without breaking reliability. Want to learn more about the problems we're solving and the culture we're building at Partly? Hear directly from our team here: https://shorturl.at/iAFUX 🥷 YOUR SKILLS - Proven track record shipping ML into production. You’ve delivered systems used by others, and you understand monitoring, regressions, and operational realities. - Strong algorithmic thinking. You’re comfortable with classical algorithms and data structures, and know when they beat ML. - Excellent applied modeling fundamentals. You can build strong baselines, choose sensible methods, and evaluate correctly. - Evaluation-first mindset. You instinctively build the evaluation framework before you over-invest in complexity, and you can articulate failure modes. - Engineering-minded execution. You write maintainable code, work effectively with services/pipelines, and care about performance and reliability. - Clear communicator and collaborator. You can align stakeholders, document trade-offs, and keep delivery moving in a low-bureaucracy environment. - Experience in messy, weakly supervised domains. You’ve worked where ground truth is imperfect and success requires clever measurement and iteration. - (Bonus) Experience with search/ranking/retrieval or graph-based approaches. You’ve built systems that combine multiple signals into reliable outputs. Please note: if you don't have all the skills or experience listed above but believe you could be outstanding in this role, please still consider applying. Many people count themselves out. We'd love the chance to learn more about you and why you're exceptional. 🎡 BENEFITS - Healthy, Catered Lunches - Enjoy fresh, healthy lunches every workday in our Auckland, Christchurch, London, and Austin offices. With no meal prep needed, you can eat, connect, and refuel with your team. (And yes, snacks and drinks are always on hand.) - Healthy Body, Healthy Mind - We care about performing at our peak. Every team member gets a $1,500 annual wellness allowance (or local equivalent) on a Partly-branded card. Use it on things such as gym memberships, rock climbing, physical therapy, massage, doctor visits, prescriptions—anything that you or your family need! - Family Comes First - Primary caregivers receive 3 months of fully paid parental leave, plus a flexible return-to-work plan (four days a week at full pay for your first three months back). - Getting Here Is On Us - If you commute to a Partly office or coworking space, choose from a paid 24/7 parking spot or a commuting allowance. One less thing to think about! - Workspaces That Inspire - Our brand-new, architecturally designed offices are built for collaboration and creativity, with great coffee, social spaces, and some of the best cafes just a few steps away. - Office-First with Flexibility - In cities where we have an office (Christchurch, Auckland, London, and Austin), we default to working from the office every day. This lets us move faster, make better decisions, and build strong relationships. We also operate with a high-trust environment, so you can manage your time around your life and flex your schedule to do your best work. - We Celebrate Together - From weekly happy hours and monthly lunches to quarterly season openers and an annual global offsite, we make time to connect, celebrate, and have fun as one team. 🛬 RELOCATION If you're relocating to Partly HQ, whether from overseas or within the country, we offer a generous relocation allowance to help support your move.