Breeze organises hundreds of thousands of real-life dates per year. The matchmaking system decides who meets whom. We're looking for a Machine Learning Scientist to help more people find a great match.

You'll work with models like gradient-boosted trees, neural networks, and LLMs to predict who will match, and shape the system that turns those predictions into the right profiles for every user. You'll make these calls, validate them through experimentation, and own the results.

About Breeze

At Breeze, we're building towards a future where people spend less time on their phones and more time connecting in real life.

The Breeze app is the dating app for real dates. We've built the world's first service that organises actual offline dates at scale. On Breeze, users skip the online chat. Once you match, you pick a time, and we organise a real-life date at one of our partner venues. We handle the reservation. We pick the place. You just show up.

We've organised over 650,000 dates and are a top 5 dating app in the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK, with rapid expansion across Europe and the US underway.

About The Role

Breeze's matchmaking system is the heart of the product. It decides which users to suggest to each other, how many suggestions to show, and when. Your work directly affects whether people have a great date tonight.

You'll Work Closely With Thomas Crul (Lead Matchmaking Engineer) And Yanna Van Der Vlugt (Product Manager), As Part Of a Small Team Where Ideas Are Challenged Constructively And You Learn From Each Other. You'll Improve This System On Two Fronts

Improve match predictions with ML/AI: You'll build and improve models (e.g. gradient-boosted trees, neural networks) that predict match probabilities, the core signal that drives the matchmaking system. You'll also improve the experimentation infrastructure itself, such as the feature store and model training pipeline. You validate improvements through A/B tests or backtesting.
Shape the matchmaking system design: You'll contribute to how the system should work: which parameters to tune, how to balance competing dynamics, and what the profile suggestion logic should look like. You'll navigate tradeoffs like "more suggestions means lower accept rate per suggestion" and "optimising for likes vs matches vs retention." You validate changes through A/B tests, geo-based tests or backtesting.

You'll have the autonomy to identify what to improve, with a team that supports experimentation and learning. You'll need to think deeply about what to change, why, and how to measure it.

About You

You don't need to tick every box. If most of the below resonates with you, we'd love to hear from you.

Sharp analytical thinker: You can keep a complex, interconnected system in your head and reason about what happens when you change one part of it. You can translate a vague product goal into a concrete approach. You know how to design experiments and interpret results rigorously.
Strong in data and ML: You're drawn to working with data and building models. You're skilled in Python and SQL, and you know when ML is the right tool versus a simpler heuristic.
Software engineer who leverages AI tools: You don't need to be a star programmer, but you can ship code in Python and ideally Go. You're comfortable with git, CLI tooling, and packaging and deploying code. You use tools like Claude Code to move fast across codebases.
User-centred thinker: You care about how system changes affect the user experience. You can own the full product process: discovery, design, and implementation.
Ownership mindset: You take responsibility for the systems you work on and don't wait to be asked.
Clear communicator: You flag risks early, make technical decisions legible to non-engineers, and keep the team aligned.
Mission-aligned: You're excited about using technology to get people offline and into real conversations with real people.

We're looking for someone with at least 1 year of full-time experience in data and/or ML. Whether you have 1 year or 10, what matters most is how you think.

What Breeze offers you

Compensation & Benefits

💰 Competitive Salary: Between €4,500 and €8,000 on a full-time basis per month (gross, excl 8% holiday allowance), depending on your experience. If necessary, we can sponsor a visa and/or 30% ruling when you qualify.

🔒 Security: After 1 or 2 seven-month contracts, transition to a permanent contract for job stability and security.

📈 Benefit from our success: Post seven-month contracts, gain the option for share options, aligning your growth with ours.

🧓 Pension: 5% pension contribution via a sustainable a.s.r. pension scheme.

🌴 Holidays: Enjoy 25 paid vacation days and public holidays off, complemented by an 8% yearly holiday allowance.

Work Environment & Tools

🕐 Flexibility: We work from our Rotterdam office on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The other two days you can work from the office or remotely. Option to work up to 1 month outside the Netherlands per year.

🚝 Sustainable & No Travel costs: Our office is just a minute away from Rotterdam Central. Breeze covers your travel costs.

💻 Quality gear: We equip you with necessary tools and software, be it a high-end laptop, LLM/professional software subscriptions and/or an ergonomic workspace.

💥 Dynamic Workspace: Fast decisions, direct impact, and ownership from day one.

Growth & Culture

🌱 Empowered Growth: Quickly gain a lot of responsibility in a rapidly growing startup, with opportunities to grow with the company, and budgets for learning.

🏋️ Personal well-being: Company fitness and access to a psychologist.

✨ Team bonding: Monthly team dinners/activities and an annual work trip abroad.

🌍 Mission-Driven Team: Work in a small, young and ambitious team dedicated to transform online dating.

Apply for the job

Feel free to reach out if you have questions about the position or our company. We're curious to know who you are and are open to talk even if you don't recognize yourself directly for 100% in this vacancy: join@breeze.social

Breeze

Vacatures

Machine Learning Scientist - Matchmaking