Staff Backend Software Engineer- (AI Platform)

Databricks • San Francisco, CA

22h • $192,000 - $260,000

About The Position

Databricks is hiring a Staff Backend Software Engineer to help shape the product experience and foundational infrastructure of its Model Serving platform. Model Serving provides enterprises with a unified, scalable, and governed platform for deploying and managing AI/ML models, with real-time, low-latency inference, governance, monitoring, and lineage. The role focuses on building systems for high-throughput, low-latency inference across CPU and GPU workloads, influencing architectural direction, and collaborating with platform, product, infrastructure, and research teams.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems.
• Deep expertise in model serving, inference systems, and related infrastructure such as routing, scheduling, autoscaling, and observability.
• Strong foundation in algorithms, data structures, and system design applied to large-scale, low-latency serving systems.
• Proven ability to deliver technically complex, high-impact initiatives that create measurable customer or business value.
• Experience leading architecture for large-scale, performance-sensitive CPU/GPU inference systems.
• Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across teams in fast-moving environments.
• Strategic and product-oriented mindset, with the ability to align technical execution with long-term vision.
• Passion for mentoring, growing engineers, and fostering technical excellence.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement core systems and APIs for Databricks Model Serving, supporting scalability, reliability, and operational excellence.
• Partner with product and engineering leadership to define the technical roadmap and long-term architecture for serving workloads.
• Make architectural decisions and trade-offs to optimize performance, throughput, autoscaling, and operational efficiency for CPU and GPU serving workloads.
• Contribute to serving infrastructure components, including model container builds, deployment workflows, routing, caching, observability, and intelligent autoscaling.
• Collaborate with product, platform, and research teams to translate customer needs into reliable, performant systems.
• Lead technical initiatives to improve latency, availability, and cost-effectiveness across customer-facing and foundational serving layers.
• Establish best practices for code quality, testing, and operational readiness.
• Mentor engineers through design reviews and technical guidance.
• Represent the team in cross-organizational technical discussions and influence Databricks’ broader AI platform strategy.

Benefits

• The total compensation package may include eligibility for an annual performance bonus and equity.
• Databricks offers employee benefits and perks; specific benefits depend on region.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed