Machine Learning Engineer

MLOps Engineer | VC-Backed AI Startup | Kubeflow Pipelines | Financial Optimization | Cologne (Hybrid)

AI Futures have been exclusively retained to find an MLOps Engineer for a high-growth, VC-funded startup in Cologne developing cutting-edge AI solutions for the financial sector. Their platform combines mathematical optimization, LLMs, and automation to transform critical decision-making across banking and insurance.

This is a hands-on, infrastructure-driven role where you'll build, scale, and maintain ML pipelines using Kubeflow, working closely with Data Scientists and Engineers to bring models from prototype to production in a lean, high-impact environment.

Hybrid: 2 days/week onsite in Cologne

Up to €110k fixed salary + benefits

The Role

• End-to-End MLOps with Kubeflow: Design and run production-grade pipelines for training, testing, and deployment across ML use cases—optimization models, LLMs, and time-series forecasting.
• ML Infrastructure & Automation: Build scalable systems with CI/CD, monitoring, and reproducibility in mind—integrating cloud environments and Kubernetes-native tooling.
• Collaboration & Delivery: Work closely with cross-functional teams to ensure smooth transitions from notebooks to production endpoints, aligning DevOps with model lifecycle management.
• Client-Centric Solutions: Collaborate with stakeholders and clients to tailor AI workflows to real-world business problems, ensuring reliability, security, and measurable value.

The Candidate

• 3+ years experience in MLOps, ML Engineering, or infrastructure roles within AI teams
• Deep knowledge of Kubeflow, Docker, Kubernetes, and Python
• Familiar with CI/CD (GitHub Actions, Terraform, Helm) and cloud platforms (Azure/GCP)
• Understanding of LLMs, RAG, or optimization models is a plus
• Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or related field
• Fluent German and strong English

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