Head of AI Engineering

Head of AI Engineering 

• Location: NYC
• In-office 3-4 days per week
• Reports to: CEO

About Axial

Axial is a trusted online marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of $5M-$100M American privately held companies. Trusted by over 3000 professional acquirers and 2500 M&A advisors, we have built a pioneering digital transaction platform that radically improves the speed, confidentiality and success by which small businesses achieve successful exits. 

In 2024, over 10,000 private companies pursued an exit via the platform, leading to over 1,000,000 platform connections, 75,000+ signed NDAs, and hundreds of millions of dollars in successfully closed transactions (https://www.axial.net/closed-deals/).

About the Role

We are hiring a Head of AI Engineering to lead the planning, architecting and incorporation of AI, ML and related advanced technologies into our products and customer experiences. 

Our current algorithmically-driven marketplace approach is effective but insufficient. Our research makes us confident that there is significant user experience and commercial upside by incorporating and matching against real-time deal data, bidding data and other rich data sets we have gathered via platform usage and 3rd party aggregation. 

We are searching for a technically excellent leader who can lead the creation of ML and AI capabilities at Axial, collaborate with the existing team, expand the team over time, and ship AI-centered roadmaps that materially upgrades the marketplace experience.

What You’ll Take On

• Design, develop, and deploy ML/AI-driven models to enhance our matching engine, communication tools, industry classification systems, and more.
• Establish AI best practices and lay the groundwork for all AI / ML development at Axial.
• Collaborate with product managers, engineers, and business stakeholders to define and execute AI strategies aligned with company objectives.
• Optimize AI and machine learning models for speed, accuracy, and scalability, ensuring reliable integration into Axial’s platform.
• Develop and refine recommendation systems, applying NLP, deep learning, and predictive analytics to improve buyer-seller matchmaking.
• Automate data processing pipelines and ensure smooth integration of AI models into production (MLOps).
• Explore and implement cutting-edge AI tools and frameworks to continuously enhance our platform.
• Create clear documentation and visualizations to communicate insights and recommendations to technical and non-technical audiences.

Who We’re Looking For

• 5+ years of experience using AI/ML and related technologies to improve consumer or B2B software experiences.
• Strong expertise in machine learning, deep learning, NLP, and recommendation systems.
• Knowledge of MLOps, model deployment, and CI/CD workflows for AI systems.
• Familiarity with SQL and data warehouses (e.g., AWS Redshift) for AI-driven analytics.
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment.
• Credible interest in building and leading machine learning capabilities in this end market.

Our stack

• Python (FastAPI), Postgres (RDS)
• Angular 18+, Typescript
• Terraform, AWS EC2/EKS, OpenTelemetry, Grafana/Prometheus/Loki/Tempo
• GitHub, Shortcut, Notion, Slack

Working at Axial

While this is an NYC-only position because of its seniority, we do have a high functioning and remote-friendly engineering team.  Several engineers are in NYC and come to the office almost daily, and we have many engineers working across the USA, Canada, and a few teammates in Central / South America. Our NYC office is casual, engineer-friendly, pretty quiet, and well-stocked with good coffee and snacks. 

We are a team of ~50 employees with a product and engineering team nearing 20 that is split among three squads. We have a senior, tightly-knit engineering team, where you will have the opportunity to have a direct impact on the product and the company. We use a “lite scrum” process, including daily stand-ups at 10am, bi-weekly sprints, sprint demos and retrospectives. Since much of our team is fully remote, we use Shortcut to track our work through the development cycle.

Below are the values we believe in and that we practice as a company, so if you connect w/ these, you may enjoy working here:

• Obsess Over Member Trust: Your daily choices reflect your awareness that we facilitate vital life-altering transactions. You consistently take this responsibility seriously and it’s top of mind.
• Expect and Deliver Excellence: You pursue consistent high performance so that your colleagues feel confident partnering and relying on you. You demonstrate a personal commitment to continuous improvement and you inspire it in others.
• Communication Matters: You are concise and articulate in your communication, external or internal. You listen actively and genuinely and ask good questions.
• Invent and Simplify: You are open-minded AND opinionated, looking for great new ideas that can elevate and even transform the member experience. You find novel ways to simplify complex status quos.
• Be an Owner: You think about the long-term effects of your decisions. You take full responsibility for your work product. You invest real time in building genuine relationships with your teammates.