---
title: 'Founding Staff ML Engineer (Tech Lead) at tryprotege.com'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/founding-staff-ml-engineer-tech-lead-tryprotege-com-palo-alto-ayw66xjy8rm4'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-16'
---

# Founding Staff ML Engineer (Tech Lead) at tryprotege.com

- **Company:** tryprotege.com
- **Location:** Palo Alto, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2025-03-18
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-16
- **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/protegeai/am9icG9zdDo8P5yujelUBun2Y9nqmYrW

## Job description

## About the Role

We’re seeking an experienced Lead Machine Learning Engineer to spearhead our AI innovations and deliver cutting-edge, scalable ML solutions. This is a hands-on leadership role where you’ll architect state-of-the-art machine learning systems, mentor a team of passionate engineers, and shape our technical strategy as we evolve our enterprise-grade AI products.

## Key Responsibilities

💡 Technical Leadership & Strategy: Drive the ML and backend roadmap with strategic planning and architecture reviews. 🤖 ML Product Development: Experiment, develop, and scale new machine learning products. Leverage advanced techniques such as LLM fine-tuning and embedding techniques to power intelligent automation. 🔧 Operational Excellence: Design end-to-end ML pipelines, monitor production systems, troubleshoot issues, and ensure seamless service through effective debugging and on-call rotations. 🎨 Collaboration & Innovation: Translate product requirements into scalable ML designs by collaborating with product managers, full stack engineers, and UX designers. Stay ahead of trends like serverless ML deployments to keep our stack efficient. 🚀 Continuous Improvement: Foster a culture of continuous learning by exploring the latest industry trends and encouraging experimentation within the team. Nice-to-Have Skills

- Background in VC-backed startups or scaling ML solutions at large tech companies.
- Familiarity with managed Lora AI deployment platforms for ML workloads, like Together, Fireworks, and Replicate.

## Qualifications

- Experience fine-tuning large language models (LLMs) for industry-specific applications.
- Expertise in optimizing LLM prompts and integrating ML solutions into production environments.
- Expertise in developing RAG pipelines for citations and similar
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
- 5+ years of professional experience in software development and machine learning at a reputable company.
- Deep expertise in machine learning experimentation best practices, data processing, and model deployment.
- A strong grasp of product experience as they relate to ML-powered products.
- Excellent communication and teamwork skills, with a passion for mentoring and leading technical teams.
- An entrepreneurial mindset with a keen interest in innovation and the startup ecosystem (bonus points for aspiring founders).

## About tryprotege.com

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Protege AI builds applied AI tools for enterprise operations, automating high-stakes workflows with traceability and human oversight.
- **Entity Type**: Private (funding raised from AppWorks, Nimble Partners, Goodwater Capital – amount not disclosed) [tryprotege.com/about](https://www.tryprotege.com/about)
- **Headquarters**: Menlo Park, California, United States [linkedin.com](https://linkedin.com/company/tryprotege)
- **Founded**: 2023 (per Tracxn) or 2024 (per LinkedIn) – conflicting reports [tracxn.com](https://tracxn.com/d/companies/protege-ai/__ZJ2rKV2MtzsMJkAkJtQ-ZrtbrtZl56p5N1n0ioxd-8U) [linkedin.com](https://linkedin.com/company/tryprotege)
- **Founders**: Alex Chung [tryprotege.com/about](https://www.tryprotege.com/about)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Enterprise AI / Operations Automation
- **Target customers**: B2B, Enterprise operations teams (PMO, Risk, IT, Marketing)
- **Mission**: Automate repetitive, high-stakes work so people can focus on judgment and real decisions [tryprotege.com/about](https://www.tryprotege.com/about)

## Products & Services
- **Hookshot™**: AI agent orchestration platform that automates operational workflows end-to-end – routing work, enforcing review logic, and escalating exceptions. Offers traceability, replay, and audit-ready evidence. Includes Hookshot IDE for ServiceNow development. [tryprotege.com/about](https://www.tryprotege.com/about) [linkedin.com](https://linkedin.com/company/tryprotege)
- **Review**: Document enforcement product that processes over 1M documents annually with median 98.8% accuracy for enterprise clients. [dover.com](https://app.dover.com/Protege%20AI/careers/5d5dfc49-fb74-43ff-b6d2-40ad6aaa9c84/audit)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Cash-flow positive (per company); processes millions of operational workflows annually [tryprotege.com/about](https://www.tryprotege.com/about)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: AppWorks, Nimble Partners, Goodwater Capital [tryprotege.com/about](https://www.tryprotege.com/about)
- **Growth Signals**: 51.6% monthly traffic growth; launching Hookshot IDE beta; hiring founding engineers [linkedin.com](https://linkedin.com/company/tryprotege) [tryprotege.com/careers](https://www.tryprotege.com/careers)

## Competitive Advantages
- Audit-ready traceability and replay for every AI run
- Focus on high-volume, high-stakes enterprise operations where manual processes don't scale
- Small, focused team with deep domain expertise – able to move fast and iterate

## Strategic Focus
- Expanding Hookshot IDE for ServiceNow and other enterprise apps
- Scaling automated document review accuracy and volume
- Building agent orchestration infrastructure that gives operations teams the throughput of automation without losing human oversight

## Why Work Here
- Work on groundbreaking applied AI with real impact at household-name enterprises
- Small team (3 employees) – high ownership, visibility, and direct contribution to product direction
- Flexible hours, remote work options, and visa sponsorship for top candidates [dover.com](https://app.dover.com/Protege%20AI/careers/5d5dfc49-fb74-43ff-b6d2-40ad6aaa9c84/audit)
- Competitive salary, health insurance, generous PTO, and professional development opportunities
- Culture of innovation, craft, and growth – "impact, craft, and growth" are the stated principles [tryprotege.com/about](https://www.tryprotege.com/about)

## Sources
1. [tryprotege.com/careers](https://www.tryprotege.com/careers)
2. [tryprotege.com/about](https://www.tryprotege.com/about)
3. [linkedin.com](https://linkedin.com/company/tryprotege)
4. [dover.com](https://app.dover.com/Protege%20AI/careers/5d5dfc49-fb74-43ff-b6d2-40ad6aaa9c84/audit)
5. [tracxn.com](https://tracxn.com/d/companies/protege-ai/__ZJ2rKV2MtzsMJkAkJtQ-ZrtbrtZl56p5N1n0ioxd-8U)

## Other roles at tryprotege.com

- [Staff Software Engineer (India)](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-software-engineer-india-tryprotege-com-bengaluru-q4cp0p7fet6c) — Bengaluru, India
- [Founding Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-software-engineer-tryprotege-com-palo-alto-aeag3a8kzsxn) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Founding Staff Software Engineer (Tech Lead)](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-staff-software-engineer-tech-lead-tryprotege-com-palo-alto-6epspfp7v79z) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Full Stack Senior Software Engineer (India)](https://feeny.ai/job/full-stack-senior-software-engineer-india-tryprotege-com-bengaluru-8629x6zj6btd) — Bengaluru, India
- [Technical Recruiter (India)](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-recruiter-india-tryprotege-com-bengaluru-6c4vyv6q24fr) — Bengaluru, India