Member of Technical Staff (AI Infrastructure Engineer)
Perplexity is hiring a Member of Technical Staff (AI Infrastructure Engineer) in San Francisco, United States. It pays $220k-$405k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Perplexity.
Level's read on this job
- Level rates this role Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
- The posting mentions PyTorch and TensorFlow among its tools and skills.
- Level classes it as a lead role.
- Perplexity has 131 other open roles on Level.
AI in this role
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
How we rate this
Member of Technical Staff (AI Infrastructure Engineer) at Perplexity 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.
Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ 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
Questions you could be asked
- What's a project where you used PyTorch hands-on?
- Walk me through how you've used TensorFlow in your day-to-day work.
- How would you decide a model or AI system is ready to ship?
- 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 and TensorFlow. 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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