Director, Machine Learning Engineering, CNN Digital Products & Services
Warner Bros. Discovery, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Welcome to Warner Bros. Discovery... the stuff dreams are made of.
Who We Are...
When we say, "the stuff dreams are made of," we're not just referring to the world of wizards, dragons and superheroes, or even to the wonders of Planet Earth. Behind WBD's vast portfolio of iconic content and beloved brands, are the
storytellers
bringing our characters to life, the
creators
bringing them to your living rooms and the
dreamers
creating what's next...
From brilliant creatives, to technology trailblazers, across the globe, WBD offers career defining opportunities, thoughtfully curated benefits, and the tools to explore and grow into your best selves. Here you are supported, here you are celebrated, here you can thrive.
Who We Are...
We are CNN. THE WORLD'S MOST ESSENTIAL AND ENGAGING SOURCE OF DIGITAL NEWS. We are in the midst of rapid transformation and need our next generation of innovators, makers, and dreamers who will lead and drive our growth. We aim to make the world a better, more connected place.
About the Team
With deep domain expertise, advanced technical capabilities, and a proven track record of successful collaborations, the
ML & AI
team at CNN is accelerating our digital transformation through strategic applications of ML and AI technologies , applying optimization to everything from content recommendations to ad sales to subscription growth -serving millions of CNN users via web and mobile apps.
Your New Role...
The
Director, ML / AI
leads this technical and people agenda: you set direction for ML and AI across CNN's digital products, align roadmaps with engineering , analytics , product, and editorial partners, and ensure that what we ship is measurable, reliable, and worthy of a global news brand.
Your Role Accountabilities...
You will be responsible for ensuring excellent
ML/AI
methods for CNN's consumer and editorial surface s: a coherent portfolio across personalization, search, recommendations, content understanding, and responsible use of generative AI and foundational models. You combine
people leadership
with
credible technical judgment
: you build and develop machine learning engineers, set cross-team priorities, and stay hands-on enough to arbitrate architecture and modeling decisions when it matters.
Here are some of the strategic priorities you will drive:
ML and AI thought leadership
: Partner with product and editorial teams to develop new uses for machine learning and AI tools across CNN's internal and customer-facing environments.
Platform and data partnership:
Co-own roadmaps with data engineering and analytics so instrumentation, pipelines, feature paths, telemetry, and data quality keep pace with ML-without excellent data and platform partnership, ML leadership cannot succeed.
Experimentation at scale:
Champion rigorous
testing
, and machine-learned
targeting
, in coordination with Data & Analytics, and clear decision rights so we learn fast without shipping confusion.
Performance and scale:
Ensure ML-powered experiences work within
real-time and web-scale
constraints-alongside caching, edge delivery, and high availability for millions of users.
Sustainability:
Balance innovation with
maintainability and cost
-leverage cloud and open-source capabilities responsibly
Here are some of the things you can expect to do on a day-to-day basis:
Lead, hire, and develop machine learning engineers; foster an inclusive culture that provides career growth and guidance for MLEs at all levels while pushing the boundaries on new methodologies and technologies .
Partner with product and analytical teams to pioneer new uses of ML and optimize existing use cases.
Own the ML systems roadmap with
platform, data, and product
leadership; size opportunities, prioritize capabilities, and secure alignment and resourcing with senior stakeholders.
Partner with
platform, infrastructure, and ML platform
teams on training, serving, feature pipelines, and operational needs for personalization and search.
Partner with
downstream application teams
on stable interfaces between ML capabilities and the website, mobile apps, and editorial tools.
Guide design and delivery of
ML in production
: monitoring, validation, iteration based on live impact-not offline metrics alone.
Represent ML/AI clearly to
editorial and business
audiences; translate goals into investments and non-negotiables (trust, corrections, safety).
Respond to incidents and learning cycles at the organizational level; champion improvements to developer experience, integrations, and testing.
Here is the approach we value:
Author, review, and optimize production-quality code and systems that adhere to industry standards and best practices
Demonstrate passion for software and ML engineering, with a strong sense of responsibility for what you and your team ship.
Take ownership of issues and advocate for your team and products; embrace failure as a learning opportunity and use research and experimentation to choose solutions that meet company goals.
Follow a progressive development methodology - proof-of-concept to prototype to production-with measurable milestones.
Enhance the effectiveness of your team and partners by sharing knowledge, explaining complex technologies in simple terms, and driving sound technical decisions.
Collaborate across functions, squads, teams, and organizations to best serve our users.
Qualifications & Experience...
Advanced degree (
Master's or PhD
) in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Information Science, Engineering, or another quantitative discipline-or
equivalent depth
from industry experience.
PhDs and research-heavy backgrounds are welcome.
8+ years
of professional experience building
machine learning and data-science-driven systems
with a proven record of innovation and measurable product or business impact. (Candidates with a
PhD
may qualify with
6+ years
of strong industry experience post-degree if the depth is equivalent.)
5+ years
developing and deploying AI/ML systems across the full lifecycle-ideation, proof of concept, deployment, monitoring, and iteration-in
Python
Demonstrated technical leadership
: a sustained record of leading multi-engineer initiatives, setting technical direction for ML systems, mentoring senior engineers, and partnering across product and platform-through
people management
,
staff/principal-level scope
, or an
equivalent combination
. Formal people-management experience is
valued but not strictly required
for candidates with an exceptional senior or staff ML track record who are ready to step into a director role.
Experience
deploying complex, large-scale
machine learning systems in production; practical familiarity with ML modeling and the operational realities of live models.
Strong communication skills and the ability to build trusted partnerships across functions in a fast-paced, high-energy environment.
The Nice to Haves...
Experience from
large-scale consumer internet
environments-social, streaming, marketplaces, or similar-where ranking, retrieval, recommendations, or search operate under latency, safety, and experimentation constraints.
Experience with
recommendation, search, or ad-serving
algorithms and systems; NLP, information retrieval, or related areas.
Familiarity with
data pipelines
, feature stores, embedding infrastructure, or large-scale feature serving.
Deep familiarity with
experimentation frameworks
and A/B testing methodologies.
Interest in
media, publishing, or news
; commitment to
responsible AI
and high-trust content experiences.
Exposure to
generative AI
in product settings-guardrails, evaluation, latency and cost tradeoffs, human-in-the-loop workflows.
Experience with
Agile
delivery practices.
How We Get Things Done...
This last bit is probably the most important! Here at WBD, our guiding principles are the core values by which we operate and are central to how we get things done. You can find them at www.wbd.com/guiding-principles/ along with some insights from the team on what they mean and how they show up in their day to day. We hope they resonate with you and look forward to discussing them during your interview.
Championing Inclusion at WBD
Warner Bros. Discovery embraces the opportunity to build a workforce that reflects a wide array of perspectives, backgrounds and experiences. Being an equal opportunity employer means that we take seriously our responsibility to consider qualified candidates on the basis of merit, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.
If you're a qualified candidate with a disability and you require adjustments or accommodations during the job application and/or recruitment process, please visit our accessibility page (https://careers.wbd.com/global/en/accessibility) for instructions to submit your request.
In compliance with local law, we are disclosing the compensation, or a range thereof, for roles in locations where legally required. Actual salaries will vary based on several factors, including but not limited to external market data, internal equity, location, skill set, experience, and/or performance. Base pay is just one component of Warner Bros. Discovery's total compensation package for employees. Pay Range: $234,500.00 - $435,500.00 salary per year. Other rewards may include annual bonuses, short- and long-term incentives, and program-specific awards. In addition, Warner Bros. Discovery provides a variety of benefits to employees, including health insurance coverage, an employee wellness program, life and disability insurance, a retirement savings plan, paid holidays and sick time and vacation.
Who We Are...
When we say, "the stuff dreams are made of," we're not just referring to the world of wizards, dragons and superheroes, or even to the wonders of Planet Earth. Behind WBD's vast portfolio of iconic content and beloved brands, are the
storytellers
bringing our characters to life, the
creators
bringing them to your living rooms and the
dreamers
creating what's next...
From brilliant creatives, to technology trailblazers, across the globe, WBD offers career defining opportunities, thoughtfully curated benefits, and the tools to explore and grow into your best selves. Here you are supported, here you are celebrated, here you can thrive.
Who We Are...
We are CNN. THE WORLD'S MOST ESSENTIAL AND ENGAGING SOURCE OF DIGITAL NEWS. We are in the midst of rapid transformation and need our next generation of innovators, makers, and dreamers who will lead and drive our growth. We aim to make the world a better, more connected place.
About the Team
With deep domain expertise, advanced technical capabilities, and a proven track record of successful collaborations, the
ML & AI
team at CNN is accelerating our digital transformation through strategic applications of ML and AI technologies , applying optimization to everything from content recommendations to ad sales to subscription growth -serving millions of CNN users via web and mobile apps.
Your New Role...
The
Director, ML / AI
leads this technical and people agenda: you set direction for ML and AI across CNN's digital products, align roadmaps with engineering , analytics , product, and editorial partners, and ensure that what we ship is measurable, reliable, and worthy of a global news brand.
Your Role Accountabilities...
You will be responsible for ensuring excellent
ML/AI
methods for CNN's consumer and editorial surface s: a coherent portfolio across personalization, search, recommendations, content understanding, and responsible use of generative AI and foundational models. You combine
people leadership
with
credible technical judgment
: you build and develop machine learning engineers, set cross-team priorities, and stay hands-on enough to arbitrate architecture and modeling decisions when it matters.
Here are some of the strategic priorities you will drive:
ML and AI thought leadership
: Partner with product and editorial teams to develop new uses for machine learning and AI tools across CNN's internal and customer-facing environments.
Platform and data partnership:
Co-own roadmaps with data engineering and analytics so instrumentation, pipelines, feature paths, telemetry, and data quality keep pace with ML-without excellent data and platform partnership, ML leadership cannot succeed.
Experimentation at scale:
Champion rigorous
testing
, and machine-learned
targeting
, in coordination with Data & Analytics, and clear decision rights so we learn fast without shipping confusion.
Performance and scale:
Ensure ML-powered experiences work within
real-time and web-scale
constraints-alongside caching, edge delivery, and high availability for millions of users.
Sustainability:
Balance innovation with
maintainability and cost
-leverage cloud and open-source capabilities responsibly
Here are some of the things you can expect to do on a day-to-day basis:
Lead, hire, and develop machine learning engineers; foster an inclusive culture that provides career growth and guidance for MLEs at all levels while pushing the boundaries on new methodologies and technologies .
Partner with product and analytical teams to pioneer new uses of ML and optimize existing use cases.
Own the ML systems roadmap with
platform, data, and product
leadership; size opportunities, prioritize capabilities, and secure alignment and resourcing with senior stakeholders.
Partner with
platform, infrastructure, and ML platform
teams on training, serving, feature pipelines, and operational needs for personalization and search.
Partner with
downstream application teams
on stable interfaces between ML capabilities and the website, mobile apps, and editorial tools.
Guide design and delivery of
ML in production
: monitoring, validation, iteration based on live impact-not offline metrics alone.
Represent ML/AI clearly to
editorial and business
audiences; translate goals into investments and non-negotiables (trust, corrections, safety).
Respond to incidents and learning cycles at the organizational level; champion improvements to developer experience, integrations, and testing.
Here is the approach we value:
Author, review, and optimize production-quality code and systems that adhere to industry standards and best practices
Demonstrate passion for software and ML engineering, with a strong sense of responsibility for what you and your team ship.
Take ownership of issues and advocate for your team and products; embrace failure as a learning opportunity and use research and experimentation to choose solutions that meet company goals.
Follow a progressive development methodology - proof-of-concept to prototype to production-with measurable milestones.
Enhance the effectiveness of your team and partners by sharing knowledge, explaining complex technologies in simple terms, and driving sound technical decisions.
Collaborate across functions, squads, teams, and organizations to best serve our users.
Qualifications & Experience...
Advanced degree (
Master's or PhD
) in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Information Science, Engineering, or another quantitative discipline-or
equivalent depth
from industry experience.
PhDs and research-heavy backgrounds are welcome.
8+ years
of professional experience building
machine learning and data-science-driven systems
with a proven record of innovation and measurable product or business impact. (Candidates with a
PhD
may qualify with
6+ years
of strong industry experience post-degree if the depth is equivalent.)
5+ years
developing and deploying AI/ML systems across the full lifecycle-ideation, proof of concept, deployment, monitoring, and iteration-in
Python
Demonstrated technical leadership
: a sustained record of leading multi-engineer initiatives, setting technical direction for ML systems, mentoring senior engineers, and partnering across product and platform-through
people management
,
staff/principal-level scope
, or an
equivalent combination
. Formal people-management experience is
valued but not strictly required
for candidates with an exceptional senior or staff ML track record who are ready to step into a director role.
Experience
deploying complex, large-scale
machine learning systems in production; practical familiarity with ML modeling and the operational realities of live models.
Strong communication skills and the ability to build trusted partnerships across functions in a fast-paced, high-energy environment.
The Nice to Haves...
Experience from
large-scale consumer internet
environments-social, streaming, marketplaces, or similar-where ranking, retrieval, recommendations, or search operate under latency, safety, and experimentation constraints.
Experience with
recommendation, search, or ad-serving
algorithms and systems; NLP, information retrieval, or related areas.
Familiarity with
data pipelines
, feature stores, embedding infrastructure, or large-scale feature serving.
Deep familiarity with
experimentation frameworks
and A/B testing methodologies.
Interest in
media, publishing, or news
; commitment to
responsible AI
and high-trust content experiences.
Exposure to
generative AI
in product settings-guardrails, evaluation, latency and cost tradeoffs, human-in-the-loop workflows.
Experience with
Agile
delivery practices.
How We Get Things Done...
This last bit is probably the most important! Here at WBD, our guiding principles are the core values by which we operate and are central to how we get things done. You can find them at www.wbd.com/guiding-principles/ along with some insights from the team on what they mean and how they show up in their day to day. We hope they resonate with you and look forward to discussing them during your interview.
Championing Inclusion at WBD
Warner Bros. Discovery embraces the opportunity to build a workforce that reflects a wide array of perspectives, backgrounds and experiences. Being an equal opportunity employer means that we take seriously our responsibility to consider qualified candidates on the basis of merit, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.
If you're a qualified candidate with a disability and you require adjustments or accommodations during the job application and/or recruitment process, please visit our accessibility page (https://careers.wbd.com/global/en/accessibility) for instructions to submit your request.
In compliance with local law, we are disclosing the compensation, or a range thereof, for roles in locations where legally required. Actual salaries will vary based on several factors, including but not limited to external market data, internal equity, location, skill set, experience, and/or performance. Base pay is just one component of Warner Bros. Discovery's total compensation package for employees. Pay Range: $234,500.00 - $435,500.00 salary per year. Other rewards may include annual bonuses, short- and long-term incentives, and program-specific awards. In addition, Warner Bros. Discovery provides a variety of benefits to employees, including health insurance coverage, an employee wellness program, life and disability insurance, a retirement savings plan, paid holidays and sick time and vacation.