Lead Machine Learning Engineer, Foundation Models

Lead Machine Learning Engineer, Foundation Models

• Team Engineering
• Location Singapore
• Job Type Full-time

The role at a glance

Get to know our Team

The AI Automation Team is dedicated to applied research in cutting-edge technologies and the development of highly scalable Foundation World Models that allow our AI systems to understand, simulate, and predict the complex temporal and spatial dynamics of Grab's marketplace across a wide variety of domains. Our core research areas encompass foundation models, embeddings, world models, and reinforcement learning. We are looking for experienced machine learning engineers to join our team and contribute to realizing this vision.

Get to know the Role

This is an applied research role aimed at developing foundation world model solutions for Grab. We are seeking a visionary Lead Machine Learning Engineer to spearhead our Foundation World Models team. In this role, you will lead the design, pre-training, and adaptation of massive, multi-modal foundation models that simulate physical environments. You will guide a team of ML engineers and researchers to build generalized, foundational architectures capable of zero-shot and few-shot spatio-temporal reasoning and action-conditioned environment simulation.

You'll report into the Senior Engineering Manager and be based onsite at Grab One North Singapore office.

The Critical Tasks You will Perform

• Lead the end-to-end development of foundational world models, making critical architectural decisions regarding transformers, diffusion models, state-space models (e.g., Mamba), or latent variable models.
• Design and optimize distributed training pipelines for massive multimodal data sets using multi-node GPU clusters.
• Stay at the forefront of AI research. Translate state-of-the-art academic papers in foundation model, world modelling (e.g., Sora, JEPA, Dreamer), and reinforcement learning into scalable, production-ready code.
• Work with MLOps and systems engineers to optimize model inference, ensuring low-latency and high-throughput for downstream tasks.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to understand their requirements and integrate foundation world models into applications.
• Mentor team members on foundation world model development and best practices.

Read more Skills you need

What Essential Skills You Will Need

• Education: A degree in computer science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, or a related technical field.
• Experience: At least 6 years of industry experience in ML engineering, with at least 2 years in technical leadership, specifically working on large-scale generative AI or Foundation Models.
• Foundation Model Expertise: Deep theoretical and practical understanding of self-supervised learning architectures, Large Language Models (LLMs), Vision-Language Models (VLMs), and sequence-to-sequence modeling.
• Engineering Chops: Expert-level proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks, specifically PyTorch or JAX.
• Distributed Systems: Proven track record of training multi-billion parameter models across hundreds or thousands of GPUs using techniques like Ray, FSDP or DeepSpeed.
• Data Processing at Scale: Experience architecting data pipelines for petabyte-scale training regimens, managing data curation, deduplication, and quality filtering for foundation model pre-training.

Read more What we offer

About Grab and Our Workplace

Grab is Southeast Asia's leading superapp. From getting your favourite meals delivered to helping you manage your finances and getting around town hassle-free, we've got your back with everything. In Grab, purpose gives us joy and habits build excellence, while harnessing the power of Technology and AI to deliver the mission of driving Southeast Asia forward by economically empowering everyone, with heart, hunger, honour, and humility.

Read more Life at Grab

Life at Grab

We care about your well-being at Grab, here are some of the global benefits we offer:

• We have your back with Term Life Insurance and comprehensive Medical Insurance.
• With GrabFlex, create a benefits package that suits your needs and aspirations.
• Celebrate moments that matter in life with loved ones through Parental and Birthday leave, and give back to your communities through Love-all-Serve-all (LASA) volunteering leave
• We have a confidential Grabber Assistance Programme to guide and uplift you and your loved ones through life's challenges.
• Balancing personal commitments and life's demands are made easier with our FlexWork arrangements such as differentiated hours

What We Stand For at Grab

We are committed to building an inclusive and equitable workplace that enables diverse Grabbers to grow and perform at their best. As an equal opportunity employer, we consider all candidates fairly and equally regardless of nationality, ethnicity, religion, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, family commitments, physical and mental impairments or disabilities, and other attributes that make them unique.

Read more

What’s it like to work at Grab?

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Lead Machine Learning Engineer, Foundation Models

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View our location

Nestled in the vibrant heart of Singapore is Grab's Global HQ! Take a tour of our office here, meet some of our teams and find out what it’s like to work in this vibrant cosmopolitan.

Meet the Engineering team

From software developers to security specialists, our people thrive on experimenting with fresh ideas and implementing them for users. Solve real-world problems, find purpose in your work and work across borders to help drive Southeast Asia forward.

Engineering at Grab is synonymous with holding yourself accountable for impacting the lives of millions of partners, be it drivers, passengers or merchants. Every line of code can have a big positive or negative impact on our consumers, which is why every little change requires thorough thought processes and a deep understanding of systems and scale.

“ ” Gaurav KumarSoftware Engineering Manager II

Learning within the Engineering team never stops, especially with the sponsored learning resources. You need to stay curious and be willing to take ownership to join and succeed in the team.

“ ” Zou YunEngineering Manager

Everybody at Grab understands the necessity of balance. We all believe that what we’re doing here is important, we’re genuinely changing people’s lives for the better, but we also understand that this shouldn’t come at the cost of your personal life.

“ ” Akanksha ValechaEngineering Manager II, Fullstack

The Application Process

What can you expect when you apply for a role at Grab? Here’s what our hiring process looks like.

Step 1: Apply.

We have a range of open roles from Marketing to Engineering and everything in between. Find the one that’s best for you and show us why you’re our next teammate.

Step 2: Getting to know you.

Next, you’ll have a video or phone interview with one of our recruiters to chat about you, the role, and your past work experiences.

Step 3: Testing, testing… 123.

Some roles might require assessments and/or a technical competency interview. For other roles, there might be an additional interview – speak with your recruiter for application details.

Step 4: Is it a culture match?

Finally, we’ll find out how we fit together, if your career vision aligns with our mission, how you embody the 4 H's, and your working style and personality.

Grab a spot in our talent community

Want to be the first to know about Grab opportunities? Keen to stay up-to-date with our latest revelations? Ready to learn more about life at Grab and our amazing teams?

Join our talent community and you’ll never miss a beat.

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