Are there any good gunsmiths in the bay area?

What companies in the Bay Area are good for a career in solving more challenging/disruptive problems in the area of machine learning?

• I work at a small firm where I get to work on data, distributed systems, recommendations and a bit of machine learning. I aspire to work on solving more challenging/disruptive problems in the area of ML and with people I can learn from. What companies in the bay area would possibly let me do this?

• Answer:

  From the sounds of it, you're doing pretty well where you are. You say that you're working on "data, distributed systems, recommendations and a bit of machine learning". Understand that, from the sounds of it, you're in a better job than 95% of professional programmers have. A job change will have you rolling the dice. The big firms that are well-known for ML tend to have a fair amount of degree bigotry, which means that if you aren't a Stanford PhD, you'll probably be passed over for the best projects, while watching plum assignments go to people less talented but more pedigreed. So I wouldn't count on them unless you have a specific, high-power person fighting to get you in. Most of your ML learning is going to come from conferences, meetups, and papers rather than where you work. You probably would benefit to start consulting, too. That might get you in contact with more interesting people and projects. The best jobs aren't advertised.