--- title: 'Machine Learning Engineer, Local Search & Marketplace at NewsBreak' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/machine-learning-engineer-local-search-marketplace-newsbreak-mountain-view-8ybqr6gw2epc' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-19' --- # Machine Learning Engineer, Local Search & Marketplace at NewsBreak - **Company:** NewsBreak - **Location:** Mountain View, CA - **Compensation:** $190k–$300k - **Posted:** 2026-07-22 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-19 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/newsbreak/jobs/4699218006 ## Job description ## About NewsBreak Founded in 2015, NewsBreak is the Content Intelligence platform shaping the future content economy. With over 40 million monthly active users, our flagship platform delivers highly personalized local news and information powered by advanced AI, recommendation systems, and adtech. Recognized by Fast Company as #32 on the Top Workplaces for Innovators, we're proud to be Great Place to Work® certified and home to a dynamic team of technologists, product innovators, and business leaders who are passionate about solving meaningful challenges at scale. Together, we reached unicorn status in 2021, and we remain committed to continuing this high-growth trajectory with the right team to fulfill our mission: building the infrastructure layer for content intelligence. If you’re inspired to dream big, innovate fast, and make a difference, we’d love to hear from you! For more information, visit [www.newsbreak.com/about](http://www.newsbreak.com/about) ## About the Role We are looking for a Machine Learning Engineer to build intelligent systems that connect consumers with relevant local information, businesses, and services. You will work across areas such as search, recommendation, ranking, retrieval, user-intent understanding, personalization, and marketplace matching. Depending on your background and interests, you may focus on understanding consumer demand, improving search and recommendation relevance, or building models that more effectively match users with local supply. This is a hands-on role with the opportunity to take machine learning solutions from problem definition and experimentation through production deployment and iteration. We welcome candidates across a range of experience levels, and the scope and level of the role will be calibrated based on the candidate’s experience. ## What You’ll Do - Build and improve machine learning models for search, recommendation, ranking, retrieval, matching, and personalization. - Develop systems that understand user queries, behaviors, preferences, and context. - Apply embeddings, natural language processing, large language models, and modern retrieval techniques to connect consumer demand with relevant local content, businesses, or services. - Build and optimize end-to-end ML pipelines, from data preparation and model training to online serving and monitoring. - Partner with product, engineering, and data teams to define problems, identify opportunities, and translate business needs into scalable ML solutions. - Design and analyze online and offline experiments to measure model quality and product impact. - Improve key product outcomes such as relevance, engagement, conversion, retention, and marketplace efficiency. - Explore new ML and LLM techniques and bring them into production where they can deliver measurable value. ## What We’re Looking For - Experience building machine learning, data mining, search, recommendation, ranking, NLP, or related systems through academic projects, internships, or industry work. - Strong programming skills in Python, Java, C++, or another relevant language. - Solid understanding of machine learning fundamentals, data structures, algorithms, and statistical analysis. - Experience with one or more of the following: - Search, retrieval, or learning-to-rank - Recommendation or personalization - Query understanding, intent classification, or NLP - Embeddings, semantic search, or large language models - Matching, marketplace optimization, or dispatch - Ability to work with large-scale or complex datasets and translate ambiguous problems into practical solutions. - Strong collaboration and communication skills. - Interest in building production systems that serve real users and deliver measurable product impact. ## Nice to Have - Experience deploying and maintaining machine learning models in production. - Experience with experimentation, including A/B testing, causal analysis, or marketplace experiments. - Familiarity with deep learning frameworks and ML infrastructure, such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, Spark, Kubernetes, or feature and model-serving platforms. - Experience building taxonomies, user-interest representations, knowledge graphs, or behavioral models. - Experience applying LLMs to search, recommendation, classification, or information retrieval. - Background in local search, local services, maps, commerce, marketplaces, delivery, mobility, or location-based products. - Experience at a consumer internet, search, recommendation, advertising, e-commerce, or marketplace company. Annual Base Pay Range $190,000 - $300,000 The US base salary range for this full-time position will vary based on job-related skills, level, experience, geographic location, and relevant education or training. At NewsBreak, we design our overall rewards package to attract top talent. Depending on the position and level, the role may also be eligible for a discretionary bonus and equity. Your recruiter can share more details during the hiring process. The US base salary range for this full-time position is listed below. Pay may vary based on a number of factors including job-related skills, level, experience, geographic location and relevant education or training. At NewsBreak, we design our overall rewards package to attract top talents. Depending on the position, the role may also be eligible for discretionary bonus and options. Your recruiter can share more details during the hiring process. Annual Base Pay Range $190,000—$300,000 USD [CPRA Privacy Notice for California Candidates](https://docs.google.com/document/d/15apsJLgHq1p5NJR3fzFmdctKX4QIzzf2/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=110601223912453011659&rtpof=true&sd=true) ## About NewsBreak ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: NewsBreak is a Content Intelligence platform that delivers hyper-local news and information to over 40 million monthly active users across the U.S. using advanced AI, recommendation systems, and adtech. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series C, reached unicorn status in 2021) - **Headquarters**: Mountain View, California, United States - **Founded**: 2015 - **Founders**: Jeff Zheng (CEO) ## Core Business - **Primary industry/industries**: Content Intelligence, Local News & Information, AI-Powered Recommendation Systems, Advertising Technology (Adtech) - **Target customers**: B2C (consumers seeking local news), B2B (publishers, content creators, local businesses), and Enterprise (advertisers and agencies) - **Mission or purpose statement**: Building the infrastructure layer for content intelligence, helping people live safer, more vibrant, and more truly connected lives by connecting and empowering local users, local content creators, and local businesses at scale. ## Products & Services - **NewsBreak Platform**: A flagship mobile app and website that delivers personalized local news and information from over 10,000 sources to more than 40 million monthly active users across the U.S. - **NBot**: An AI-powered agentic assistant that lets users personalize any digital engine (apps, platforms, websites) using natural language. - **Publishing Platform (mp.newsbreakapp.com)**: B2B tools that help publishers, content creators, and local businesses engage audiences with monetization and audience-reach solutions. - **Creator Program**: A platform for local content creators to distribute their work and monetize their audience. - **Adtech & Monetization Solutions**: Targeted advertising solutions for local businesses, helping them connect with local audiences. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Unicorn status (valuation over $1 billion) achieved in 2021. Latest valuation not publicly disclosed. - **Total Funding**: $115 million in Series C funding led by Francisco Partners (2021). Total funding amount not fully disclosed. - **Key Metric**: 40+ million monthly active users (MAU) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Francisco Partners (lead investor in Series C) - **Growth Signals**: Reached unicorn status in 2021; recognized by Fast Company as #32 on the Top Workplaces for Innovators (2025); Great Place to Work® certified; growing workforce with active hiring across engineering, product, and business roles. ## Competitive Advantages - **Content Intelligence Infrastructure**: A proprietary AI-powered platform that personalizes local news and information at scale, creating a unique data moat. - **Hyper-Local Focus**: Serves over 10,000 local news sources, filling a critical gap in the declining local news market. - **Large, Engaged User Base**: 40+ million MAU provides a strong network effect for both content creators and advertisers. - **Advanced AI & Recommendation Systems**: Deep expertise in NLP, recommendation algorithms, and agentic AI (NBot) differentiates them from traditional news aggregators. - **B2B & B2C Dual Model**: Generates revenue from both consumers (via engagement) and businesses (via advertising and publishing tools). ## Strategic Focus - **Content Intelligence Leadership**: Doubling down on AI to build the "infrastructure layer" for content intelligence, enabling smarter connections between people, businesses, and information. - **AI-Powered Innovation**: Continued development of agentic AI (NBot), LLM post-training, and AI-driven advertising agents to enhance personalization and monetization. - **Local Market Dominance**: Expanding the network of local publishers, creators, and businesses to strengthen the hyper-local ecosystem. - **Monetization Growth**: Scaling adtech and B2B tools to increase revenue from both SMBs and enterprise advertisers. ## Why Work Here - **Culture of Innovation**: Recognized by Fast Company as one of the Best Workplaces for Innovators (2025), with a culture that values curiosity, autonomy, and collaboration. Employees work in decentralized, autonomous teams with real ownership over product areas. - **High-Growth Environment**: A unicorn company on a high-growth trajectory, offering accelerated professional growth for those who "think big, move fast, and create real-world impact." - **Great Place to Work® Certified**: 92% of employees are proud to be making a difference, 94% felt welcomed when they joined, and 84% say it's a great place to work (compared to 57% at a typical U.S. company). - **Benefits**: Competitive healthcare benefits (flexible medical care, premium dental/vision), 401(k) matching, and a focus on mental, physical, and financial well-being. - **Remote/Hybrid Policy**: HQ is in Mountain View, CA, with a presence in New York and Bellevue, WA. Job postings list specific locations, suggesting a hybrid or on-site model for most roles. - **Engineering Culture**: Emphasis on ML, AI, recommendation systems, and adtech. Teams work with cutting-edge tech (LLMs, agentic AI, NLP) and are encouraged to pursue applied research, collaborate with academic institutions, and attend industry events. ## Sources 1. [NewsBreak Careers Page](https://careers.newsbreak.com/) 2. [NewsBreak Job Board (Greenhouse)](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/newsbreak) 3. [NewsBreak LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/newsbreak) 4. [PRNewswire - Fast Company Best Workplaces for Innovators 2025](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/newsbreak-recognized-among-the-worlds-best-workplaces-for-innovators-by-fast-company-302552097.html) 5. [Great Place to Work - NewsBreak Profile](https://www.greatplacetowork.com/certified-company/7088585) ## Other roles at NewsBreak - [Senior Accountant – General Ledger & Revenue Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-accountant-general-ledger-revenue-operations-newsbreak-mountain-view-94wsm63wez93) — Mountain View, CA - [Partner Rewards & Experience](https://feeny.ai/job/partner-rewards-experience-newsbreak-mountain-view-pps2gd56vs9d) — Mountain View, CA - [Short Drama Creative Editor Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/short-drama-creative-editor-intern-newsbreak-mountain-view-8f370yss8cgv) — Mountain View, CA - [Senior Product Manager, ReelBee Consumer App](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-manager-reelbee-consumer-app-newsbreak-mountain-view-x6b3d3wkaaft) — Mountain View, CA - [Short Drama Creative Editor Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/short-drama-creative-editor-intern-newsbreak-mountain-view-j13debd2fdkz) — Mountain View, CA - [Head of User Acquisition, Short Drama](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-user-acquisition-short-drama-newsbreak-mountain-view-c455be7y192j) — Mountain View, CA - [Content Operations & Curation](https://feeny.ai/job/content-operations-curation-newsbreak-mountain-view-ca2gtsq9yd68) — Mountain View, CA - [Head of Content & Supply](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-content-supply-newsbreak-mountain-view-gvxbqrrtyhg5) — Mountain View, CA - [Senior Product Manager, Local Ads and Monetization](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-manager-local-ads-and-monetization-newsbreak-bellevue-g20pkbyw7e3s) — Bellevue, WA / Mountain View, CA - [Agency Partner Manager, Scaled Growth (Global)](https://feeny.ai/job/agency-partner-manager-scaled-growth-global-newsbreak-mountain-view-xxmsbj0gtk0j) — Mountain View, CA