Senior AI Platform Engineer
At a glance
Senior ML Platform & Ops role at Motive. Toronto · CA$137,000–CA$165,000 base.
aimlroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Build and maintain production services, APIs and interfaces, covering code, tests, reviews, deployments and ongoing support
- Run production AI systems for retrieval, evaluation, fine-tuning and inference, turning prototypes into reusable platform tools
- Set up AWS or GCP environments with Kubernetes and Terraform for applications and model pipelines
- Monitor reliability, handle incidents and work with others on access controls and SOC 2 or SOX needs
- Track cloud and AI costs, then reduce waste by tuning GPU use, routing, model selection and capacity
What you bring
- At least five years building software professionally, including ownership of systems used in production
- You have delivered backend services or APIs and production AI or machine-learning systems, including LLMs, retrieval or model serving
- Strong Python skills plus a second programming stack, with PyTorch, TensorFlow or an equivalent serving option
- Hands-on experience with AWS or GCP, Kubernetes, Terraform and CI/CD, plus work governing or lowering cloud and AI spend
Who this fits
This suits a senior engineer who ships and operates software and AI systems, and is comfortable owning both reliability and cost tradeoffs. The role is based in Toronto, Canada, and applicants must be authorized to access technology controlled under U.S. export rules.
From the employer
Who we are:
Motive empowers the people who run physical operations with tools to make their work safer, more productive, and more profitable. For the first time ever, safety, operations and finance teams can manage their drivers, vehicles, equipment, and fleet related spend in a single system. Combined with industry leading AI, the Motive platform gives you complete visibility and control, and significantly reduces manual workloads by automating and simplifying tasks.
Motive serves nearly 100,000 customers – from Fortune 500 enterprises to small businesses – across a wide range of industries, including transportation and logistics, construction, energy, field service, manufacturing, agriculture, food and beverage, retail, and the public sector.
Visit gomotive.com to learn more.
About the Role
Senior engineer who ships production software and AI systems on cloud infrastructure that is reliable, secure, and cost-disciplined. You design applications and services, operate inference platforms and pipelines, and treat unit economics (tokens, GPU-hours, idle capacity) as engineering constraints.
You partner with product, engineering, and business stakeholders to deliver working software, higher reliability, and lower cost per unit of AI value.
What You Will Do
Software development
- Design, build, and ship production services, APIs, and (where needed) user-facing interfaces.
- Own the full lifecycle: implementation, tests, code review, CI/CD, deploy, and maintenance.
- Write maintainable code in Python plus one more stack (TypeScript/Node, Go, or Java).
AI engineering
- Build and operate production AI systems: RAG, evaluation, fine-tuning, serving, and inference optimization.
- Turn prototypes into reusable platform capabilities with CI/CD, eval, and governance.
Cloud infrastructure
- Architect AWS/GCP environments with Kubernetes, Terraform, and CI/CD for apps and model pipelines.
- Own observability and incident response; partner on SOC 2/SOX and least-privilege IAM.
Cost control
- Treat cloud and AI spend as an engineering problem: visibility, attribution, budgets, and reduction.
- Optimize GPUs, inference routing, model choice, and right-sizing; track cost per request/token and GPU idle.
What We're Looking For
Required
- 5+ years of professional software development, owning production systems (not only scripts or notebooks).
- Shipped backend services/APIs and production AI/ML (LLMs, RAG, serving).
- Strong Python plus a second stack; PyTorch, TensorFlow, or equivalent serving.
- AWS or GCP with Kubernetes, Terraform, and CI/CD.
- Proven work reducing or governing cloud/AI spend.
- Clear communication of technical and cost tradeoffs; you run what you build.
Preferred
- Full-stack (React/Next.js), vector databases, inference optimization, FinOps tooling, SOX/SOC 2, Copilot/Cursor.
What Success Looks Like
- Production software and AI with SLOs and real ownership — not demos.
- Reliability stays high while GPU and cloud waste trends down.
- Cost per unit of AI value is visible and improving; teams reuse libraries, IaC, and cost guardrails.
Pay Transparency
Your compensation may be based on several factors, including education, work experience, and certifications. For certain roles, total compensation may include restricted stock units. Motive offers benefits including health, pharmacy, optical and dental care benefits, paid time off, sick time off, short term and long term disability coverage, life insurance as well as 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). Learn more about our benefits by visiting Motive Perks & Benefits.
The compensation range for this position will depend on where you reside. For this role, the compensation range is:
Canada$137,000—$165,000 CADCreating a diverse and inclusive workplace is one of Motive's core values. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives.
Please review our Candidate Privacy Notice here.
UK Candidate Privacy Notice here.
The applicant must be authorized to receive and access those commodities and technologies controlled under U.S. Export Administration Regulations. It is Motive's policy to require that employees be authorized to receive access to Motive products and technology.
Regarding US-based roles, depending on your role and primary work location, Motive Technologies, Inc. (“Employer”) discloses candidates may be required to execute a non-compete covenant with the Employer. This requirement does not apply to lawyers, interns, or employees working in CA, MN, MT, ND, OK, or where otherwise prohibited by law.
Non-compete covenant terms in all other jurisdictions will be subject to the applicable statutory requirements, including but not limited to, procedures, industry related prohibitions, or salary and compensation thresholds.
All job postings are for existing vacancies. Please note; some interviews or new-hire training sessions may be held in person at one of our global offices.