Level

Featherless AI

Machine Learning Engineer — Training Optimization

Featherless AI is hiring a Machine Learning Engineer — Training Optimization for a remote role. Level rates it ; you can apply on Featherless AI.

Level's read on this job

  • Level rates this machine learning engineer role Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
  • The posting lists this role as remote.
  • Tools and skills the posting cites include PyTorch.
  • Level lists 16 other open roles at Featherless AI.

AI in this role

pytorch

About the Role

We’re looking for an ML Engineer focused on training optimization to help us scale and improve large-scale model training. You’ll work at the intersection of research and production, optimizing training pipelines for speed, stability, and cost—while collaborating closely with researchers pushing model architecture and capability forward.

This is a high-impact role with real ownership: your work directly affects how fast we can iterate, how large we can scale, and how efficiently we deploy new models.

What You’ll Do

  • Optimize large-scale model training pipelines (throughput, convergence, stability, and cost)

  • Improve distributed training strategies (data, model, and pipeline parallelism)

  • Tune optimizers, schedulers, batch sizing, and precision (bf16 / fp16 / fp8)

  • Reduce training time and compute cost via profiling, bottleneck analysis, and systems-level improvements

  • Collaborate with researchers on architecture-aware training strategies

  • Build and maintain robust training infrastructure (checkpointing, fault tolerance, reproducibility)

  • Evaluate and integrate new training techniques (e.g. gradient checkpointing, ZeRO, FSDP, custom kernels)

  • Own training performance metrics and continuously push them forward

What We’re Looking For

  • Strong experience training large neural networks (LLMs or similarly large models)

  • Hands-on experience with training optimization (not just model usage)

  • Solid understanding of:

    • Backpropagation, optimization algorithms, and training dynamics

    • Distributed systems for ML training

  • Experience with PyTorch (required)

  • Comfort working close to hardware (GPUs, memory, networking constraints)

  • Ability to move fluidly between research ideas and production-ready code

Nice to Have

  • Experience with large-scale distributed training (multi-node, multi-GPU)

  • Familiarity with DeepSpeed, FSDP, Megatron, or custom training stacks

  • Experience optimizing training on AMD or NVIDIA GPUs

  • Contributions to open-source ML infrastructure or research codebases

  • Exposure to non-Transformer architectures (RNNs, hybrid models, etc.)

Why Join Us

  • Real ownership at Series-A stage — your work shapes the company’s trajectory

  • Work on cutting-edge models and training systems at scale

  • Small, highly technical team with fast feedback loops

  • Strong emphasis on engineering quality and research rigor

  • Competitive compensation + meaningful equity

How we rate this

Machine Learning Engineer — Training Optimization at Featherless AI rates 99 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.

  1. ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
  2. ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
  3. ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
  4. ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

PyTorch

Also common in machine learning engineer jobs at this level

Pay

Typical machine learning engineer job
$199k

This posting doesn't list pay. Use the typical machine learning engineer figure when pay comes up. See machine learning engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

  1. What's a project where you used PyTorch hands-on?
  2. How would you decide a model or AI system is ready to ship?
  3. Tell me about a time a model underperformed in production. How did you find out, and what did you change?

Adapt your resume

  • List these exact terms on your resume: PyTorch. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
  • Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
  • Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.

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