AI/ML Engineer (Founding Technical Team)

At the FoodHealth Company (formerly bitewell), we’re not building another food app — we’re on a mission to fundamentally change the way the world eats. Our vision? A world without diet-related disease. And with $7.5M in Series A funding led by Reach Capital and Ulu Ventures, we’re poised to make it happen.

Our flagship product, the FoodHealth Score, is the most widely distributed retail nutrition rating in the U.S., providing an instant reflection of the nutritional quality of any food — already live in Kroger stores like King Soopers, Ralphs, and Harris Teeter. We believe wellness should be accessible to every family in every zip code, and we’re building the infrastructure to make that possible.

Applicants must have permanent work authorization in the United States. FoodHealth Company is unable to provide visa sponsorship or support visa transfers for this position.

We are looking for an AI/ML Engineer to join our founding technical team. This is not just a model-tuning role — you'll be at the heart of rebuilding our entire technical landscape. You'll wear multiple hats: system builder, algorithm designer, infrastructure contributor, and applied researcher.

This role demands strong mathematical intuition, deep algorithmic thinking, and equally strong software engineering capabilities. You’ll be expected to think beyond libraries, understand model internals, and take responsibility for robust, scalable, and performant production-grade ML systems.

About FoodHealth Company

At FoodHealth Company, we’re building a future where every food choice is a health decision. Our proprietary FoodHealth Score is more than just a rating — it’s a new standard in food health evaluation that simplifies complex nutrition science and empowers consumers to make better food choices. Our ambition is to bring this transparency to every grocery shelf, every food brand, every drive through, every cafeteria and every dining table across America.

What You'll Do

• Design and implement end-to-end ML pipelines from experimentation to production.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to rebuild our core data and ML infrastructure.

• Apply rigorous algorithmic thinking to ML problem solving (e.g., optimization, probabilistic modeling, search, graph algorithms).

• Translate academic ML research into production-ready systems.

• Optimize model performance with hands-on tuning and engineering (data flow, GPU/TPU use, distributed training).

• Own CI/CD for ML workflows (training, evaluation, deployment, monitoring).

• Influence and contribute to architectural decisions and technical roadmaps.

• Write high-quality, testable, and maintainable code across the stack.

Experience We're Looking For

• 3–7+ years of experience in AI/ML, software engineering, or related roles.

• Strong foundation in algorithms, data structures, linear algebra, probability, and statistics.

• Deep proficiency in Python and experience with at least one ML/DL framework (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX).

• Familiarity with classical ML, deep learning, and modern architectures (transformers, diffusion models, etc.).

• Demonstrated experience shipping ML into production environments.

• Experience with containerization, orchestration (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes), and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure).

• Track record of reading, implementing, or contributing to research (papers, benchmarks, or open-source projects).

• Non-linear thinking — the ability to approach problems from unconventional angles, challenge assumptions, and design creative, systems-level solutions beyond textbook patterns.

Added Bonus

• Experience in low-latency or high-throughput system design.

• Comfort with C++, Rust, or Go for performance-critical components.

• Exposure to ML systems like Ray, MLFlow, Weights & Biases.

• Background in DevOps/MLOps and system reliability.

• Prior startup or early-stage product development experience.

Why FoodHealth Company?

• Impact: You’ll shape foundational systems that power the entire product.

• Ownership: High autonomy and decision-making power from day one.

• Team: Work with passionate, ambitious engineers and researchers.

• Growth: Be part of a startup poised for major scale and influence.

• Culture: We value intellectual rigor, speed, transparency, and kindness.

Additional Details

• Location: San Francisco - hybrid (3 days in office)

• Reports to: Sean Hoskin, Chief Technology Officer

• Compensation: $145K - $175K + Bonus + Equity

• Benefits: Health, Dental & Vision Insurance, Employee Assistance Program, Monthly Food Stipend, Unlimited PTO

FoodHealth Company celebrates diversity and is committed to building an inclusive environment for all. We’re an equal opportunity employer and encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply and bring their authentic selves to our team as we work together to revolutionize how people make food choices.