Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Zillow is building the next generation of AI experiences for customers navigating real estate decisions. The Principal Machine Learning Engineer will set technical direction, design scalable systems, and lead initiatives across teams to enhance Zillow's agentic data platform capabilities.
Responsibilities
- Set the technical direction. Define and own the multi-quarter architecture roadmap for the agentic data foundations (Context engineering, Agentic memory, and AI workflows) that power Zillow's agentic experiences
- Architect and ship at scale. Design, prototype, and ship systems that handle hundreds of millions of agent interactions with high availability, low latency, and predictable cost. Stay hands-on in code and production when it matters
- Drive cross-organization execution. Lead complex, multi-team initiatives across Agentic AI and Platform teams - aligning on architecture, surfacing dependencies, and driving outcomes through influence rather than direct authority
- Communicate to every level. Translate complex platform trade-offs, ambiguous customer problems, and emerging agentic paradigms into clear, actionable insights for engineering peers, product partners, Directors, and VPs
- Grow senior technical talent. Mentor Senior and Staff engineers, raise the bar on technical judgment and architecture decisions, and shape the engineering culture of the org
Skills
- 10+ years building, scaling, and operating large-scale data and ML infrastructure (production-grade pipelines, feature stores, and model-serving layers), with 1 to 2 of those recent years shipping agent-based or LLM-powered systems to production
- 3+ years as a technical leader spanning multiple organizations
- Hands-on experience designing and shipping agentic AI in production — orchestration, tool use, memory and context engineering, retrieval (embeddings, hybrid search, ranking) and evaluation
- Expert-level Python; deep experience with agentic frameworks (LangGraph, LangChain, Agents SDK, AutoGen), large-scale data processing (Spark, Databricks, Airflow, Temporal), vector stores, and cloud Infrastructure (AWS preferred)
- Proven ability to set technical direction across organizational boundaries, build trust with engineering, science, and product leaders, and articulate complex trade-offs clearly to engineering peers and executives
- Drive outcomes through influence, not authority
- Expert in distributed systems architecture, and operational excellence
- You've designed systems that hold up under massive scale and tight SLOs
- Advanced degree (M.S. or Ph.D.) in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field, with emphasis on building distributed systems and AI
- Experience building data platform for agentic systems or real‑time AI applications
- Experience working with regulated, private, or sensitive data at scale
- Experience designing evaluation, tracing, or safety frameworks for LLM‑based production systems
Benefits
- In addition to a competitive base salary this position is also eligible for equity awards based on factors such as experience, performance and location.
- Employees in this role will not be paid below the salary threshold for exempt employees in the state where they reside.
- Zillow was named one of FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® in 2025
- Included on the PEOPLE Companies That Care® 2025 list
- If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please contact your recruiter directly.
- Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable state and local law.
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