Machine Learning Engineer
Programa | AI-powered SaaS for the Design Industry
Melbourne (Hybrid) | Open to Australia & New Zealand
To be discussed upon application
Programa is a fast-growing, Series B SaaS startup building an operating system for interior designers and architects. With 5,500+ paying customers across 85 countries, we're already the backbone of the design industry and now we're doubling down on AI to take it further.
We're hiring a Machine Learning Engineer to help ship real, customer-facing AI features across search, recommendations, agents, and automation. This is a hands-on role where you'll work at the intersection of ML, backend engineering, and product, turning LLM capabilities into production systems that scale.
This is not an R&D role.
This is about shipping AI that actually works in production.
What you'll work on
You'll join a growing Data & AI team and collaborate closely with Product, Design, and Engineering to:
* Build and ship end-to-end ML-powered features (search, recommendations, AI agents)
* Develop and deploy LLM-based systems using RAG, embeddings, and structured context
* Own model deployment and infrastructure on AWS (SageMaker, Bedrock, Lambda, OpenSearch)
* Create and monitor embedding pipelines and vector search relevance
* Build context-aware AI assistants that understand real user workflows
* Contribute to data pipelines using Snowflake, dbt, and SQL
* Help define evaluation frameworks for quality, grounding, and safety
* Influence our AI platform architecture and roadmap as we scale
What we're looking for
We're open on background but strong execution matters most.
You'll likely have:
* 3ish years of experience as an ML Engineer or backend-focused AI Engineer
* Strong Python skills and experience shipping production code
* Hands-on experience deploying ML/LLM systems in production
* Familiarity with FastAPI, LangChain, OpenAI SDK
* Experience with AWS (SageMaker, Bedrock, Lambda, Docker)
* Solid understanding of RAG, embeddings, and LLM application design
* Comfort working in fast-moving, slightly unstructured environments
Nice to have (not required):
* Agent or co-pilot style systems
* LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, or similar orchestration tools
* Vector databases (OpenSearch, Pinecone)
* Search relevance optimisation
* Experience building AI features for SaaS products
Why join Programa?
* Real impact, fast:
you'll ship meaningful AI features within your first few months
* Production-first AI:
no demos that die in Notion docs
* Strong technical leadership:
work closely with our CTO and Head of Data & AI
* Cross-functional culture:
engineers, PMs, and designers build together
* Career growth:
clear path toward Senior → Principal as the team scales
* Modern AI workflows:
context engineering, spec-driven development, and experimentation encouraged
Team & ways of working
* 5-week delivery cycles
* Strong DevOps & automation mindset
* Regular 1:1s and thoughtful code reviews
* Balance of new feature delivery and technical quality
* Hybrid setup out of our office in
Cremorne, Melbourne
* Minimum
2 days/week in-office
(Wed & Thu)
Our mission
We're modernising the global architecture and interior design industry, connecting designers, brands, suppliers, and clients through a single, intelligent platform.
If you want to build AI systems that power real workflows for thousands of users, we'd love to hear from you.
Apply via LinkedIn or reach out for a confidential chat