{"id":40196,"url":"https://alion.io/job/pony-ai-machine-learning-engineer-reinforcement-learning","title":"Machine Learning Engineer - Reinforcement Learning","company":{"id":119,"name":"Pony.ai","domain":"pony.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/pony-ai","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workable","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":100,"open_postings":9,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"}},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Fremont, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":150000,"max":null,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":150000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"Fine-tuning","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Post-training","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"PyTorch","optional":false},{"name":"RLHF","optional":false},{"name":"Vision-Language-Action","optional":false},{"name":"VLM","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-18T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-18","last_verified_at":"2026-10-17T23:30:48Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":29,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":[],"days_open":29},"description":"Founded in 2016 in Silicon Valley, Pony.ai has quickly become a global leader in autonomous mobility and is a pioneer in extending autonomous mobility technologies and services at a rapidly expanding footprint of sites around the world. Operating Robotaxi, Robotruck and Personally Owned Vehicles (POV) business units, Pony.ai is an industry leader in the commercialization of autonomous driving and is committed to developing the safest autonomous driving capabilities on a global scale. Pony.ai’s leading position has been recognized, with CNBC ranking Pony.ai #10 on its CNBC Disruptor list of the 50 most innovative and disruptive tech companies of 2022. In June 2023, Pony.ai was recognized on the XPRIZE and Bessemer Venture Partners inaugural “XB100” 2023 list of the world’s top 100 private deep tech companies, ranking #12 globally. As of August 2023, Pony.ai has accumulated nearly 21 million miles of autonomous driving globally. Pony.ai went public at NASDAQ in November 2024.\nResponsibility\nBuild scalable systems for training and fine-tuning large generative models that produce realistic, informative driving behaviors for evaluation and scenario coverage.\nImplement and iterate on RL-style methods: algorithms, reward / preference objectives, and training setups suited to high-fidelity, insightful behaviors in simulation-aligned workflows (closed-loop evaluation mindset).\nShip deep learning solutions (including LLM / VLM where appropriate) that improve human-led triaging, automate high-volume workflows, and support nuanced analysis of self-driving behavior to surface critical anomalies.\nOwn production-oriented ML for fleet-scale assessment: training, optimization, monitoring, and iteration of models used to judge performance across large real-world exposure.\nDesign and evolve data + evaluation systems inspired by RL from human preferences (RLHF) and related paradigms-turning preference/judgment signals into repeatable, scalable training and evaluation loops.\nPartner broadly with teams such as Prediction, Planning, Research, and platform/engineering leads to land cross-cutting improvements with clear metrics.\nRequirements\nM.S. or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, AI, or a related field-or equivalent practical experience.\nHands-on experience building and applying ML in production-grade settings, with a strong RL component (policy learning, preference/feedback optimization, or offline/online RL pipelines).\nDepth in deep learning, sequence modeling, and generative models.\nDemonstrated impact via strong publications or a clear history of shipping impactful ML systems end-to-end.\nExperience with large-scale distributed training and large-scale data processing.\nAbility to lead ambiguous technical work from problem framing through reliable delivery.\nPreferred\nBackground in autonomous vehicles, robotics, or complex simulation environments.\nStrong grasp of modern RL and post-training techniques in LLM, dLLM, VLA and video generations.\nHands-on integration of simulation platforms with ML training and evaluation workflows.\nPython fluency and frameworks such as PyTorch\nExperience defining and operating metrics for complex, safety-critical AI systems.\nTechnical leadership: influencing stakeholders, aligning teams, and raising the bar for evaluation rigor.\nExcellent communication-simple explanations of complex trade-offs.\nCompensation and Benefits\nBase Salary Range: $150,000 - $250,000 Annually\nCompensation may vary outside of this range depending on many factors, including the candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies, experience, and location. Base pay is one part of the Total Compensation and this role may be eligible for bonuses/incentives and restricted stock units.\nAlso, we provide the following benefits to the eligible employees:\nHealth Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)\nRetirement Plan (Traditional and Roth 401k)\nLife Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)\nPaid Time Off (Vacation & Public Holidays)\nFamily Leave (Maternity, Paternity)\nShort Term & Long Term Disability\nFree Food & Snacks\nPlease click here for our privacy disclosure.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4112,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["401k plan","Life insurance","Parental leave","Restricted stock units","Retirement plans"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Autonomous Driving","Ride Hailing"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-05-29T00:00:00Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 12 · green card filings: 6","filings_12m":12,"filings_prev_12m":18,"green_card_filings_12m":6,"median_offered_wage_usd":172500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":8}],"liveness":{"score":37,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.675,"p_room":0.55,"age_days":29,"expected_fill_days":27,"reasons":["conf:3","velocity","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":150000,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/pony-ai-machine-learning-engineer-reinforcement-learning","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/pony-ai-machine-learning-engineer-reinforcement-learning.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-17T23:45:43Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":2143,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-18T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":119},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=119"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fpony-ai-machine-learning-engineer-reinforcement-learning"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fpony-ai-machine-learning-engineer-reinforcement-learning"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fpony-ai-machine-learning-engineer-reinforcement-learning"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/pony-ai-machine-learning-engineer-reinforcement-learning\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fpony-ai-machine-learning-engineer-reinforcement-learning"}]}