Staff Engineer, Machine Learning & Data Infrastructure

As a Staff Engineer for Machine Learning and Data Infrastructure at OKX, you will lead the architecture and hands-on development of the ML and data infrastructure behind our risk and fraud prevention systems. You will help teams move models from experimentation into reliable production services, improve model execution performance, and build scalable data foundations for training, evaluation, and real-time decisions.

What you'll do

• Improve model inference latency, throughput, resource utilization, and cost by profiling the full prediction path from feature retrieval and preprocessing to model execution, and deliver measurable improvements without unacceptable model-quality regressions.
• Build reusable infrastructure for model packaging, versioning, deployment, serving, monitoring, and rollback across cloud platforms and regions.
• Design and optimize offline data pipelines on Databricks, Apache Spark, and warehouse/lakehouse technologies, addressing data modeling, partitioning, joins, shuffles, skew, incremental processing, and cost.
• Connect offline and online feature pipelines, ensuring point-in-time correctness, consistent feature definitions, freshness, lineage, and reproducible backfills.
• Evolve reliable feature services and data integrations supporting risk models and decision systems.
• Set technical direction, mentor engineers, and lead delivery across ML, data engineering, cloud infrastructure, security, and product teams.

What you bring

• A record of building and operating large-scale distributed systems, ML infrastructure, or data platforms, with technical ownership across teams.
• Hands-on experience optimizing production model performance, supported by measurable improvements in latency, throughput, utilization, or cost.
• Deep understanding of Databricks and Spark, or comparable offline data platforms, including execution plans, distributed query optimization, storage layouts, data correctness, and workload cost management.
• Experience with the model lifecycle, including training/serving integration, validation, deployment, observability, and rollback.
• Strong Python, SQL, and at least one backend or systems language such as Java, Scala, Go, or C++.
• Ability to turn ambiguous requirements into clear architecture and deliver maintainable systems through hands-on engineering and technical leadership.

Nice to have

• Experience with SageMaker, Alibaba Cloud PAI/EAS, or comparable ML platforms.
• Inference optimization using tools such as ONNX Runtime, TensorRT, or Triton.
• Experience with Delta Lake, MLflow, feature stores, Kafka, Flink, and low-latency data stores.
• Background in fraud detection or financial risk systems.
• Fluency in Mandarin.

What we offer

• Competitive total compensation package with a salary range of $214,666 to $321,999, performance bonus, and long-term incentives.
• Learning and development programs for your growth and development.
• Various team building programs and company events.
• Wellness and meal allowances.
• Comprehensive healthcare schemes for employees and dependants.

About OKX

OKX is a leading crypto exchange and developer of OKX Wallet, giving millions access to crypto trading and decentralized crypto applications. OKX also serves hundreds of large institutions seeking access to crypto markets, backed by our Proof of Reserves. We operate across multiple global offices, united by our core principles of We Before Me, Do the Right Thing, and Get Things Done.