Lead Machine Learning Scientist at The New York Times
New York, NY
$166,000–$205,000
Jul 5, 2026
New York, NY
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A technical leadership role focused on building embedding models and semantic retrieval systems to power reader-facing AI features at a major news organization. Day-to-day work spans designing and training representation learning models, fine-tuning language models for content enrichment, and collaborating with engineering to ship these systems into production. Suited to a senior ML practitioner with a strong background in deep learning and experience mentoring other scientists.
Staff level · 7+ years · New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA · Full-time
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 280 people in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (data scientists). range 150–370
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $138,970 (middle half $103,548–$176,968).
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (7)
The title is 'Lead Machine Learning Scientist' with no explicit seniority level word (Junior/Senior/Staff/Principal), so the title states no level. However, the actual scope — providing technical leadership across a team of ML scientists, setting shared practices org-wide, and reporting to a Director — supports a Staff-level classification.
The overall experience gate is stated as 'PhD plus 4+ years OR 7+ years' in a relevant quantitative discipline; 7 years is used as the overall years minimum since it is the non-PhD path minimum.
A PhD is listed as an alternative path to the experience requirement ('PhD plus 4+ years'), not a standalone hard requirement; equivalent experience is explicitly accepted, so the degree requirement is None.
Vision-language models are mentioned alongside LLMs and embeddings as part of the same production-systems requirement; they are captured under the LLMs skill rather than as a separate entry since the JD treats them as a single compound requirement.
Two Tower architectures and transformer encoders appear in the responsibilities narrative rather than the qualifications section; transformer encoders is retained as a preferred skill given its prominence in the role description.
Cross-functional collaboration and scoping/milestone delivery appear only under Preferred Qualifications and are methodological rather than named technologies, so they are omitted from the skills list per extraction rules.
The role is described as hybrid remote/in-office (New York Times HQ, New York City); remote is set to false as it is not fully remote.
Read the full posting
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