Cleo
(Senior) Machine Learning Engineer
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About Cleo
At Cleo, we're not just building another fintech app. We're embarking on a mission to fundamentally change humanity's relationship with money. Imagine a world where everyone, regardless of background or income, has access to a hyper-intelligent financial advisor in their pocket. That's the future we're building.
Cleo is a rare success story: a profitable, fast-growing unicorn with over $300 million in ARR and growing 2x year-over-year. This isn't just a job; it's a chance to join a team of brilliant, driven individuals who are passionate about making a real difference. We have an exceptionally high bar for talent, seeking individuals who are not only at the top of their field but also embody our culture of collaboration and positive impact.
If you’re driven by complex challenges that push your expertise, the chance to shape something truly transformative, and the potential to share in Cleo’s success as we scale, while growing alongside a company that’s scaling fast, this might be your perfect fit.
Note: Follow us on LinkedIn to keep up to date with new product features and insights from the team.
About The Role
(Senior) Machine Learning Engineers at Cleo work on building novel solutions to real-world problems. This could involve:
- Creating chatbots to coach our users around their financial health
- Building classifiers to better understand transaction data
- Optimising transactions within our payments platform
Ultimately, we’re looking for a brilliant (Senior) Machine Learning Engineer to join us on our mission to fight for the world’s financial health. You’ll be leading technical work within a team of adaptable, creative, and product-focused engineers, who train & integrate cutting-edge machine learning across a variety of products and deploy them into production for millions of users. We understand our customers, we understand their pain, and we are passionate about helping them.
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Check out this blog on Isabelle’s journey in ML at Cleo.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Training and fine-tuning models to solve customer problems
- Deploying these models into production using our in-house ML platform (read more on our blog: Let's have an Espresso: MLOps at Cleo) or integrating with LLMs hosted by OpenAI, Anthropic, GCP, AWS and others
- Collaborating with backend engineers, data analysts, UX writers, product managers, annotation teams, and others to ship features improving users’ financial health
- Proposing & leading technical work on previously unknown or poorly understood problems
- Mentoring & advising colleagues on model choices, architecture, and best ML practices, including LLM usage
Example Projects
Over the last year, our ML engineers have tackled challenges such as:
- Developing financial transaction classifiers to help users understand transactions better
- Building contextual intent classifiers to improve conversational understanding for users
- Creating ML models to contextualise user actions and available features in Cleo
- Optimising payment success rates and reducing costs for both customers and the business
Requirements
Essential
- Excellent command of Data Science (Python, SQL) and production tools
- Deep understanding of probability and statistics fundamentals
- Ability to diagnose problems and productionise research work
- Strong communication skills, especially when partnering with Product & Commercial Leaders
- Industry-leading contributions through conferences, blogs, talks, or open-source projects
- Advanced degree in a quantitative discipline or equivalent commercial experience
Nice to Have
- Experience with additional programming languages, such as Java, Scala, C++
- Exceptional industry-leading contributions (blog/papers/talks/code)
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Recruitment Process
- Interview with a Recruiter (30 mins)
- Interview with the Hiring Manager (30 mins)
- Python Coding Interview (45 mins)
- White-boarding session (60 mins)
- Technical Discussion (45 mins)
Compensation & Benefits
A competitive compensation package (base + equity), with range varying by location and seniority:
Mid-Level (L2)
- London, UK (Hybrid): £75,000 - £95,000 gross annually
- UK Remote: £69,000 - £87,000 gross annually
Senior-Level (L3)
- London, UK (Hybrid): £95,000 - £120,000 gross annually
- UK Remote: £87,000 - £110,000 gross annually
Additional Perks
✔️ Work at one of the fastest-growing tech startups, backed by top VCs (Balderton & EQT Ventures) ✔️ Clear progression plan with try-new-things flexibility and leadership opportunities ✔️ Flexibility to balance work-life needs ✔️ Globally distributed team with hybrid/in-office flexibility and paid travel costs ✔️ Performance reviews every 4 months, generous pay increases for top performers ✔️ Equity top-ups based on performance ✔️ Annual leave: 25 days + public holidays (+1 extra day per year, up to 30 days) ✔️ 1 paid sabbatical month after 4 years at Cleo ✔️ 6% pension matched (UK) ✔️ Private Medical Insurance, dental cover, and life assurance ✔️ Remote access to mental health resources (Spill) ✔️ Enhanced parental leave and workplace nursery scheme ✔️ Free access to AI platforms (ChatGPT, Codex, Claude & coding materials) ✔️ Prep computers of choice (Windows or Apple) ✔️ Company socials, online and in-person
Note: Final compensation depends on experience, qualifications, and skills.
Cleo strongly encourages applications from:
- People of colour
- LGBTQ+ community
- People with disabilities
- Neurodivergent individuals
- Parents, carers
- Working-class backgrounds
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London
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