Member of Technical Staff (AI Infrastructure Engineer)
At a glance
Senior ML Platform & Ops role at Perplexity. San Francisco · full-time · $220,000–$405,000 base.
aimlroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Build and run Kubernetes clusters that support AI model training and inference
- Tune Slurm environments and job scheduling for distributed large-language-model training
- Create APIs and orchestration systems for training workflows and inference services
- Track ML workload health, investigate performance issues and outages, and improve cluster capacity
What you bring
- Production experience operating large Kubernetes deployments, including cluster administration and YAML configuration
- A track record managing Slurm clusters and HPC workloads, with scheduling and resource allocation experience
- Python and C++ skills for infrastructure automation, plus PyTorch experience with distributed training
- Experience deploying distributed training systems at scale and supporting both training jobs and inference services
Who this fits
This senior role suits an infrastructure engineer focused on ML clusters, distributed training, and inference reliability. The work is based in San Francisco.
From the employer
We are looking for an AI Infra engineer to join our growing team. We work with Kubernetes, Slurm, Python, C++, PyTorch, and primarily on AWS. As an AI Infrastructure Engineer, you will be partnering closely with our Inference and Research teams to build, deploy, and optimize our large-scale AI training and inference clusters
Responsibilities
Design, deploy, and maintain scalable Kubernetes clusters for AI model inference and training workloads
Manage and optimize Slurm-based HPC environments for distributed training of large language models
Develop robust APIs and orchestration systems for both training pipelines and inference services
Implement resource scheduling and job management systems across heterogeneous compute environments
Benchmark system performance, diagnose bottlenecks, and implement improvements across both training and inference infrastructure
Build monitoring, alerting, and observability solutions tailored to ML workloads running on Kubernetes and Slurm
Respond swiftly to system outages and collaborate across teams to maintain high uptime for critical training runs and inference services
Optimize cluster utilization and implement autoscaling strategies for dynamic workload demands
Qualifications
Strong expertise in Kubernetes administration, including custom resource definitions, operators, and cluster management
Hands-on experience with Slurm workload management, including job scheduling, resource allocation, and cluster optimization
Experience with deploying and managing distributed training systems at scale
Deep understanding of container orchestration and distributed systems architecture
High level familiarity with LLM architecture and training processes (Multi-Head Attention, Multi/Grouped-Query, distributed training strategies)
Experience managing GPU clusters and optimizing compute resource utilization
Required Skills
Expert-level Kubernetes administration and YAML configuration management
Proficiency with Slurm job scheduling, resource management, and cluster configuration
Python and C++ programming with focus on systems and infrastructure automation
Hands-on experience with ML frameworks such as PyTorch in distributed training contexts
Strong understanding of networking, storage, and compute resource management for ML workloads
Experience developing APIs and managing distributed systems for both batch and real-time workloads
Solid debugging and monitoring skills with expertise in observability tools for containerized environments
Preferred Skills
Experience with Kubernetes operators and custom controllers for ML workloads
Advanced Slurm administration including multi-cluster federation and advanced scheduling policies
Familiarity with GPU cluster management and CUDA optimization
Experience with other ML frameworks like TensorFlow or distributed training libraries
Background in HPC environments, parallel computing, and high-performance networking
Knowledge of infrastructure as code (Terraform, Ansible) and GitOps practices
Experience with container registries, image optimization, and multi-stage builds for ML workloads
Required Experience
Demonstrated experience managing large-scale Kubernetes deployments in production environments
Proven track record with Slurm cluster administration and HPC workload management
Previous roles in SRE, DevOps, or Platform Engineering with focus on ML infrastructure
Experience supporting both long-running training jobs and high-availability inference services
Ideally, 3-5 years of relevant experience in ML systems deployment with specific focus on cluster orchestration and resource management