Senior MLOps Engineer – Databricks & AWS Ad Tech in Columbus
Career & Market Insight
This is a senior individual contributor with technical leadership responsibilities — a sweet spot for MLOps engineers who want to shape standards and architecture without moving into pure management. The role's focus on co-owning MLOps practices signals real influence over tooling and process decisions.
Compensation: CAD $130K–$140K plus bonus is on the moderate-to-competitive end for Senior MLOps in Canada. Toronto/Vancouver market rates for this level typically range CAD $130K–$160K+, so this sits at the lower bound of market. Candidates with strong Databricks and real-time serving experience may be able to negotiate toward the higher end or use this as a benchmark for counter-offers.
Skills you'll develop:
- Production MLOps on Databricks + AWS — a highly marketable stack in 2024–2025.
- Real-time, low-latency model serving — in-demand for ad-tech, fintech, and recommendation systems.
- MLflow, Delta Live Tables, and CI/CD for ML — platform-portable skills.
- Technical mentorship and engineering standards ownership — accelerates the path to Staff Engineer or ML Platform Lead.
Green flags: NASDAQ-listed company with a 14-year track record; cross-functional collaboration with ML scientists and Product; clear technical scope. Yellow flags: The description mentions a "tight-knit" office culture with catered meals and in-person events — the in-person culture emphasis may conflict with fully remote expectations. Confirm remote policy before accepting. Career growth pathways are described broadly but not specifically defined.
We are seeking a Senior MLOps Engineer based in Canada to join our data and machine learning team. This role will co-own MLOps practices at Fluent Media and establish standards for model deployment, serving, scaling, and infrastructure efficiency. Working with ML scientists, Data Engineering, and Product, this engineer will ensure models support accurate ad selection through reliable production systems at an optimal cost to serve.
What You'll Do
- Partner with ML scientists to operationalize models in Databricks and AWS.
- Build, monitor, and optimize automated pipelines for training, testing, and deployment.
- Establish standards for model versioning, automated testing, release controls, and performance monitoring.
- Design and scale model-serving infrastructure to meet latency, reliability, and cost requirements.
- Lead investigations and resolve complex production issues across the ML lifecycle.
- Document repeatable workflows, review designs and code, and mentor colleagues in MLOps best practices.
- Create and maintain dashboards to track model performance, reliability, and infrastructure cost.
Requirements
- Strong experience with Databricks (preferred) and AWS-based ML workflows.
- Proficiency with Python, SQL, PySpark, and related ML and data engineering tools.
- Experience with ML lifecycle management tools such as MLflow and Delta Live Tables.
- Proven ownership of architecture and operations for real-time, low-latency relevance models and serving endpoints.
- Hands-on experience with CI/CD, automated testing, and monitoring systems.
- Ability to independently resolve production challenges and collaborate with ML scientists, engineers, and Product.
- Experience reviewing pull requests, establishing engineering standards, and mentoring colleagues.
Nice-to-Haves
- Knowledge of data governance, security, and compliance in cloud environments.
- Familiarity with model observability and explainability frameworks.
- Experience with stream processing or near-real-time pipelines.
- Knowledge of digital marketing or mar-tech metrics.
Profile Fit
This is a hands-on technical leadership role, best suited for someone who can independently design reliable ML systems, establish engineering standards, and strengthen the team's production capabilities. The role requires sound judgment across model performance, reliability, scalability, and infrastructure cost.
About Us
Fluent, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLNT) is a commerce media solutions provider connecting top-tier brands with highly engaged consumers. Leveraging diverse ad inventory, robust first-party data, and proprietary machine learning, Fluent unlocks additional revenue streams for partners and empowers advertisers to acquire their most valuable customers at scale. Founded in 2010, Fluent uses its deep expertise in performance marketing to drive monetization and increase engagement at key touchpoints across the customer journey. For more insights visit: https://www.fluentco.com/
Benefits
At Fluent, we like what we do, and we like who we do it with. Our team is a tight-knit crew of go-getters; we love to celebrate our successes! In addition, we offer a fully stocked kitchen, catered breakfast and lunch, and our office manager keeps the calendar stocked with activity-filled events. When we are not eating, working out, or planning parties, Fluent folks can be found participating in recreational sports leagues, networking with She Runs It, and bonding across teams during quarterly outings to baseball games, fancy dinners, and pizza-making classes. And we have all the practical benefits, too:
- Competitive compensation
- Ample career and professional growth opportunities
- Health, dental, and vision insurance
- Pre-tax savings plans and transit/parking programs
- 401K with competitive employer match
- Volunteer and philanthropic activities throughout the year
- Educational and social events
- The amazing opportunity to work for a high-flying performance marketing company!
Salary Range: $130,000 to $140,000 CAD plus competitive bonus. The base salary range represents the low and high end of the Fluent salary range for this position. Actual salaries will vary depending on factors including but not limited to location, experience, and performance.
Candidates may be at risk of targeting by malicious actors seeking personal information. Fluent recruiters will only reach out via LinkedIn or email with an @fluentco.com domain. Any outreach by Fluent via other sources (e.g., text, other domains, etc.) should be ignored.
Fluent participates in the E-Verify Program. As a participating employer, Fluent, LLC will provide the Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with information from each new employee's Form I-9 to confirm work authorization. Fluent, LLC follows all federal regulations including those set forth by The Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC). The OSC enforces the anti-discrimination provision (274B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1324b.
Frequently Asked Questions
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