Distinguished Engineer, AI Infrastructure

Equinix • Tampa, FL

1d • $230,000 - $414,000

About The Position

Equinix is building a new generation of AI infrastructure products. As a Distinguished Engineer on the AI Infrastructure Products team, you will design, build, and launch platforms and services that enable customers to run AI inference close to their data, clouds, and partners across Equinix’s global footprint. This is a hands-on builder role: you will incubate new products from zero to one and harden them into reliable platforms at global scale, working across container- and service-based compute platforms, customer-facing APIs, and networking connected to Equinix Fabric and the broader interconnection portfolio.

You will serve as the senior-most technical authority for AI Infrastructure Products, defining the multi-year architecture vision and shaping Equinix’s approach to AI infrastructure. The role operates at company and industry level, with influence on executive leadership, company-wide technology investments, strategic customers, partners, standards bodies, and industry forums.

You will build and operate infrastructure and inference products, guide API-first and service-oriented architectures, and follow developments in inference serving, accelerators, and model optimization. You will take new concepts through prototypes and production launches, partner with Product Management on requirements and MVPs, and translate customer needs and market shifts into technical strategy. You will also apply platform engineering, DevOps, and SRE practices to deliver secure, scalable, observable, and reliable services across Equinix’s global data center footprint, and integrate products with Equinix Fabric, Network Edge, and other interconnection products.

The role includes leading architecture and design reviews, authoring technical design documents and decision records, mentoring Senior Principal and Principal Engineers, and collaborating with Product, Engineering, Security, Operations, go-to-market teams, customers, and partners.

Requirements

• Strong experience building and operating distributed systems and services at scale.
• Hands-on production experience with Kubernetes and the cloud-native ecosystem, such as containers, operators, Helm, or service mesh.
• Proficiency in Go.
• Deep experience designing APIs and service-oriented or microservices architectures.
• Solid background in platform engineering, DevOps, or SRE, including CI/CD, infrastructure as code, observability, and reliability engineering.
• Experience with AI/ML inference, such as model-serving frameworks, GPU scheduling, or performance tuning, or a strong demonstrated interest in developing deep expertise in this area.
• Working knowledge of networking fundamentals, including TCP/IP, routing, BGP, load balancing, and overlays, and their use in multisite, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments.
• Track record of taking new products or platforms from zero to one and through launch.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and driving decisions with incomplete information.
• Proven ability to influence technical direction across teams without direct authority.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including explaining complex technical concepts to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Python or other systems languages.
• Experience with GPU infrastructure and accelerated computing, such as NVIDIA GPU Operator, the CUDA ecosystem, or RDMA/RoCE/InfiniBand.
• Experience building on or integrating with interconnection or network-as-a-service platforms.
• Background at a cloud provider, data center, or infrastructure-as-a-service company.
• Open-source contributions, such as to CNCF projects, conference talks, or published technical writing.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the multi-year technical vision and reference architecture for AI infrastructure across Equinix, aligning product, platform, and network strategy.
• Influence executive leadership and company-wide technology investments, and represent Equinix with strategic customers, partners, standards bodies, and industry forums.
• Mentor and develop Senior Principal and Principal Engineers and shape the organization’s technical talent bar.
• Design, build, and operate infrastructure and inference-related products and services, including customer-facing APIs.
• Write production-quality code, primarily in Go, and set standards for code quality, testing, and design reviews.
• Design secure, well-documented API-first and service-oriented architectures that customers and partners can integrate with.
• Track developments in inference serving frameworks, accelerators, and model optimization and incorporate appropriate technologies into products.
• Take new product ideas from concept through prototype to production launch, partnering with Product Management to shape requirements and define MVPs.
• Run proofs of concept, make build-versus-buy decisions, and turn early learnings into durable architecture.
• Translate customer needs and market changes into technical strategy and product roadmap direction.
• Architect and operate platforms and services that scale across Equinix’s global data center footprint.
• Apply platform engineering, DevOps, and SRE practices, including automation, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, observability, SLOs, and incident response.
• Identify and resolve systemic platform reliability, performance, and cost issues.
• Integrate AI infrastructure products with Equinix Fabric, Network Edge, and other interconnection products.
• Partner with network architecture and product teams to design low-latency, resilient connectivity for distributed inference.
• Lead architecture and design reviews and author design documents and decision records.
• Mentor and grow engineers, raise the technical bar, and help build a strong engineering culture on a new team.
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, Security, Operations, and go-to-market teams, and engage directly with strategic customers and partners.

Benefits

• Employee Assistance Program.
• Health or healthcare coverage, life insurance, disability insurance, and voluntary or optional benefit plans.
• Retirement or savings plans, including employer/employee retirement contributions; Canadian offerings include DCPP, RRSP, and TFSA.
• Accrued paid time off or vacation and personal time.
• Paid holidays.
• Bonus eligibility; equity may be offered depending on the position.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior