Foothill Ventures · 19 hours ago
Founding Forward-Deployed ML Engineer
San Francisco, CA
Full-time
Onsite
Mid Level
$130K/yr - $180K/yrFoothill Ventures is a technology-focused venture fund based in Los Altos, California, investing in startups across various sectors. The role of Founding Forward-Deployed ML Engineer involves working with medical imaging companies to prepare AI-powered devices for FDA submissions, focusing on understanding and demonstrating model behavior and delivering evidence that influences regulatory decisions.
Angel InvestmentFinanceFinancial ServicesFinTechVenture Capital
Responsibilities
You work directly with medical imaging companies preparing AI-powered devices for FDA 510(k) or De Novo submissions
You own customer engagements end-to-end: running meetings, defining evaluation questions, leading investigations, and delivering evidence that materially affects go/no-go decisions
The focus isn’t building models, but understanding and demonstrating behavior
Where does the model generalize? Where does it break? What trade-offs are being made? What uncertainty remains?
The output is a defensible behavioral understanding, supported by rigorous evidence–clear enough to inform internal decisions, build customer confidence, and withstand regulatory review
You combine practical ML skills with the customer-obsession and product thinking
You solve problems for real customers and take those learnings to build a platform that scales
This role grows with the company. Near-term: define how evidence delivery scales. Long-term: Head of Product or Head of Engineering, depending on where you have the most impact
Qualification
Required
Strong judgment around ML evaluation: able to design investigations, interpret ambiguous results, and reason about failure modes in real systems
Experience with messy, real-world medical data and incomplete or imperfect ground truth
End-to-end analytical ownership in Python, from data ingestion through defensible analysis and communication of results
Comfortable representing technical findings directly to customers and non-technical stakeholders
Operates effectively with incomplete information and evolving problem definitions
Preferred
Familiarity with FDA pathways, medical imaging, or regulated ML environments
Company
Foothill Ventures
Foothill Ventures is a technology-focused venture fund that invests in seed to A-round startups in the United States.
Founded in 2017
11-50 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Foothill Ventures has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2023 (1)
2021 (1)
Funding
Current Stage
Early StageLeadership Team
Eric Rosenblum
Managing Partner
Michael Jin
Managing Partner
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