Staff Backend Engineer, Customer Value Optimization

The Role

We're looking for a Staff Backend Engineer to join our Customer Value Optimization (CVO) tribe at HelloFresh. This is a high-impact individual contributor role sitting at the intersection of Data Science and Backend Engineering — you'll be the technical bridge that turns ML models into reliable, scalable production systems.

You'll work across squads within the CVO tribe, partnering closely with Data Scientists and Backend Engineers to define how we serve ML models at scale, raise the technical bar, and accelerate the tribe's ability to deliver value to our customers.

What you’ll do

Design, build, and own robust, scalable infrastructure for live serving of ML models in production

Act as the technical bridge between Data Science and Backend Engineering teams within the CVO tribe — translating Data Science needs into scalable engineering solutions

Define and drive best practices for model serving, APIs, and system design across squads

Lead cross-squad technical initiatives, from architecture decisions to hands-on implementation

Partner with Data Scientists to ensure models are production-ready — performant, observable, and maintainable

Contribute to tribe-wide engineering standards and shape the technical roadmap

Mentor and support engineers across squads without direct line management responsibility

What you’ll bring

7+ years of backend engineering experience, with a strong foundation in Python

Proven experience building and operating ML model serving systems or ML platforms in production

Deep understanding of distributed systems, APIs, and micro services architecture

Strong track record of working across team boundaries to deliver complex, cross-functional projects

Excellent communication skills — able to work fluently with Data Scientists, Machine Learning Engineers, and Data Engineers

A collaborative, low-ego approach with strong technical judgment

Nice to Have

• Experience with ML frameworks and serving tools
• Familiarity with feature stores, model registries, or MLOps tooling
• Background in e-commerce, subscription, or personalization domains
• New York Pay Range$190,365—$220,150 USD