Founding Machine Learning Engineer (ML Research Engineer)

Willow is looking for a Founding ML Research Engineer to build its personalization layer.

This role is for someone who believes the hardest unsolved problem in AI products is not raw model capability, but context and user modeling. Foundation models are getting better every month. The open question is how to build an AI system that understands a specific user in the flow of their work.

You will work on the systems that turn Willow from “great dictation” into a personalized communication and intent layer. Today, a user can say something rough like: “Tell my boss I’ll come in at 6.” Willow should understand the screen, the relationship, the app, the user’s tone, their past edits, their communication style, and produce the message the user would have written if they had taken the time to write it well.

Willow cares much more about technical depth, product intuition, and speed than credentials or years of experience.

Willow is a voice-first productivity app that lets you type anywhere on your computer using your voice. People rely on Willow every day to write emails, respond in Slack, prompt AI, take notes, and move faster through their work.

Willow has proven adoption from individual power users to enterprises like Uber, Gusto, and Heidi Health, and is backed by Y Combinator, Box Group, and founders from Instacart, Reddit, Shopify, and HubSpot. The company is scaling quickly, and you will be joining early., The first major computer interface was the keyboard. The second was touch. The third is voice. But the opportunity is larger than voice itself. Voice captures intent naturally and with very low friction. By living directly inside user workflows, Willow gains something most AI systems do not have: continuous, real-world context. As AI systems become more autonomous, the highest-frequency interactions on a computer remain fast, contextual, ambiguous, and deeply personal. That requires understanding not just the task, but the user: their workflows, preferences, communication patterns, and intent in the moment. Exactly what Willow can capture.

Willow is an intense, highly ambitious, in-person team in San Francisco that optimizes for learning, ownership, speed, and exceptional work. You will have significant responsibility, direct ownership, and the opportunity to shape the future direction of the company very early. #J-18808-Ljbffr