Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Large Language Models

Company Description

Noeon Research is an ambitious deep-tech startup working on a novel natively agentic graph-neuro-symbolic system with general capabilities. We are an international 30-people team with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. We are looking for an aspiring professional to join our RnD team.

Responsibilities and Expectations

• Design, build, and maintain production-grade ML systems with a strong focus on Large Language Models (LLMs). 

• Own and evolve the LLMOps lifecycle: data preparation, fine-tuning, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, and iteration. 

• Develop evaluation frameworks for LLM quality, robustness, and regression tracking. 

• Collaborate closely with researchers, product engineers, mathematicians, and infrastructure teams to translate research prototypes into reliable production systems. 

• Contribute to architectural decisions around agentic systems, RAG pipelines, and hybrid ML + symbolic components.

Experience

• 3+ years of experience in Machine Learning or Applied AI roles. 

• Hands-on experience deploying ML models to production environments. 

• Practical experience with LLMs (open-source or proprietary) in real-world applications. 

• Experience operating ML systems under production constraints (latency, cost, observability, reliability). 

• Experience working in fast-moving startup or R&D-driven environments is a strong plus.

Technical skills

• Strong Python proficiency; experience with ML frameworks.

• Solid understanding of modern LLM stacks: fine-tuning, inference optimization, RAG, prompt/agent orchestration. 

• Experience with MLOps / LLMOps tooling: experiment tracking, evaluation pipelines, monitoring, CI/CD for models. 

• Familiarity with containerization and deployment (Docker, Kubernetes or equivalents). 

• Experience with cloud or on-prem GPU environments. 

• Understanding of distributed systems concepts is a plus.

Educational Background

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).

Essential Soft Skills

• Proactive mindset to stay updated with the latest advancements in AI.

• Fluent in conversational and written business English (C1+).

• Ability to work collaboratively in cross-functional teams.

• Experience working using Agile framework.

Personal Qualities

• Individual responsibility. You respect key deadlines and pass on the results of your work to your teammates in an appropriate condition.

• Lifelong learning. You recognise areas for growth and proactively learn new skills and knowledge for your current and prospective areas of responsibility.

• Vision & planning. You can plan your work several weeks ahead and can juggle multiple projects at once. You know when to postpone a task to keep your workload manageable.

• Thoroughness. You cover every important aspect of your task leaving out no crucial detail.

• Proactiveness and initiative. You offer help if you have spare capacity. You take initiative and pitch your own projects to others.

• Critical thinking. You question every judgement, claim or number and can engage in a healthy debate with your teammates.

• Dynamic, out-of-the-box mindset. You can challenge existing ways, abandon well-trodden paths and embrace the new in the name of the great.

How we are different

• Beyond ML. People tend to think that AI is solely Machine Learning, like ChatGPT (or DALL-E 2, or Microsoft Bing, or ChatSonic). We are building our solution on a different architecture where ML is just a part.

• High-Tech. We put much effort into profound research and development of new underlying technologies rather than reusing existing ones.

• Startup. We have a little regulations and a lot of freedom for our colleagues to propose solutions.

What we are offering

• Our target salary range is 16-22M JPY per year for a full-time position and equity compensation (options).

• Flexible Schedule. Outside scheduled team meetings, teammates are free to work on their tasks independently. When to work is a personal choice. Just do not overwork – that is inefficient.

• Autonomy. High autonomy is crucial for us – the small and agile team can achieve a breakthrough if its members are professional and independent. However, we promote helping each other. That is crucial too.

• Low Bureaucracy. What we value most are performance and results, not a strict process following. However, metrics, processes, and documentation are important too. We just keep their priorities low.

• Medical Allowance. Compensation of additional medical costs, yearly health checkup.

• Language Courses. Support for Japanese language training. 

• Other. Visa Sponsorship, Relocation Allowance, Travel Allowance, Commute Allowance, Japanese Social Security, Maternity & Childcare leave, Life Support.

Contact us: hiring@noeon.ai