Machine Learning Engineer - Character Models (Diffusion)

About Spin Master and Hapiko

Spin Master is a global leader in children’s toys, entertainment, and digital gaming, renowned for its culture of openness, integrity, and innovation. Hapiko, a Spin Master subsidiary, creates the Stickerbox, a voice-activated sticker printer that enables children to instantly produce physical stickers of their imaginative verbal inputs. The team combines senior engineering expertise with Spin Master’s global brand reach to revolutionize play.

Role Overview

You will develop and refine machine learning models and pipelines that allow children to create stickers of popular characters. This unique position involves hands-on training and fine-tuning of diffusion models to produce brand-approved, visually appealing stickers optimized for a compact thermal printer. Collaborating closely with brand teams, you’ll ensure character accuracy and quality for global scaling.

Primary Responsibilities

• Develop, train, and fine-tune diffusion or other generative image models, along with related pipelines and adapters tailored for character sticker generation.
• Enhance evaluation frameworks to assess both character fidelity and overall output quality.
• Ensure that voice-activated requests reliably generate correct character stickers.
• Collaborate with brand teams to secure approvals and manage product releases.
• Partner with ML Serving engineers to deploy models into production and with Trust & Safety teams to ensure child-safe outcomes from day one.

Required Skills and Qualifications

• Proven experience fine-tuning diffusion or generative image models.
• Expertise in constructing training data pipelines adhering to strict provenance and data integrity requirements.
• Familiarity with creating evaluation metrics and frameworks for generative model outputs and using them to guide development decisions.
• Strong proficiency in Python with a focus on writing maintainable, reliable training code and data pipelines.
• Innovative mindset with a desire to contribute creatively to cutting-edge play technologies.

Compensation and Work Environment

The anticipated annual salary range in Ontario is $136,700 to $182,300, with actual pay reflecting experience, education, and other factors. Spin Master offers a dynamic, startup-like atmosphere with significant opportunities for impact, career advancement, and internal mobility. The company values inclusivity and accessibility in its hiring process and workplace.

Additional Information

• Flexible work hours and comprehensive benefits.
• Fun, innovative, and collaborative culture.
• Commitment to a fair and reasonable accommodation process for applicants needing support during recruitment.