Machine Learning Engineer (Assessments)

About the role

Join Speak, a tech startup focused on language learning. As a Machine Learning Engineer, you will work closely with the Assessment Design Lead and other teams to build and improve assessment systems. You will be responsible for the implementation, deployment, and ongoing quality of assessment algorithms and ML systems. This role requires strong experience in designing and running evaluation and validation for assessment systems, as well as expertise in spoken language proficiency assessment. Key missions: Conception, implementation, and deployment of assessment algorithms and machine learning systems.. Collaboration with cross-functional teams to translate assessment constructs into measurable scoring systems.. Monitoring, regression testing, and ongoing iteration to maintain accuracy targets for assessment systems. Profile: - Ability to operate cross-functionally and communicate clearly with non-technical partners (Content/LD, PM, leadership) - Strong experience designing and running evaluation + validation for assessment/scoring systems, and tailoring approaches to a specific product use case - PhD is helpful but not required - 4+ years building automatic proficiency assessment systems (or equivalent depth in closely related scoring/evaluation domains) - Strong generalist ML/analysis skills (statistics, Python, PyTorch/model training) - Domain expertise in spoken language proficiency assessment (linguistics, applied linguistics, pedagogy, or equivalent experience) - Proven ability to ship ML models to production (not only research), including reliability, monitoring, and iteration - Experience with speech/audio ML - Experience with psychometrics concepts (reliability/validity, calibration)