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Thumbtack

Software Engineer, AI/ML Infrastructure (US-Based)

Thumbtack is hiring a Software Engineer, AI/ML Infrastructure (US-Based) for a remote role open to applicants in United States. It pays $145k-$188k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Thumbtack.

Level's read on this job

  • Builds AI ●●●● is how Level rates this software engineer role: the job is building AI systems.
  • This is listed as a remote role.
  • The posting mentions Kubernetes, CI/CD and mlops among its tools and skills.
  • Level classes it as a mid-level role.
  • Thumbtack has 34 other open roles on Level.

AI in this role

Build and scale core AI/ML infrastructure to support model training, serving, and agentic workflows.

KubernetesCI/CD
mlopsmachine-learning-infrastructuredistributed-systems

Thumbtack helps millions of people confidently care for their homes.

Thumbtack is the one app you need to take care of and improve your home — from personalized guidance to AI tools and a best-in-class hiring experience. Every day in every county of the U.S., people turn to Thumbtack to complete urgent repairs, seasonal maintenance and bigger improvements. We help homeowners know which projects to do, when to do them and who to hire from our growing community of 300,000 local service businesses. If making an impact inspires you, join us. Imagine what we’ll build together.

About the Machine Learning Infrastructure Team

At Thumbtack, our challenges span a wide range of areas, including search, recommendations, matchmaking, pricing, safety, content generation, fraud detection, and more. The ML Infrastructure team is responsible for centralizing, standardizing and evolving AI/ML infrastructure that enables these experiences. We empower product engineering teams by providing scalable, high-performance systems that drive AI innovation at scale. To read more about some of the engineering challenges at Thumbtack, visit our engineering blog.

Challenge

As a Software Engineer on the ML Infrastructure team, you will work closely with product and platform engineering teams to build and evolve core AI platform capabilities. You will help design and improve systems that allow teams to develop, run, and scale AI-powered applications in production. Your work will directly support AI-driven experiences used by millions of customers and pros across the Thumbtack ecosystem.

What you'll do

  • Build and evolve core AI platform capabilities that enable teams to develop, run, and scale AI-powered applications across Thumbtack.

  • Contribute to the design, development, and deployment of scalable tools and infrastructure to support the efforts of our applied scientists, including traditional ML model training and serving systems, feature and data workflows, CI/CD, orchestration, deployment, and evaluation tooling.

  • Work hands on across the stack, from backend services and execution infrastructure to integrations with AI models and tooling.

  • Partner with senior engineers to evaluate next-generation AI infrastructure frameworks and tools that help product teams harness advances in AI.

  • Drive projects to completion with a strong focus on business impact and measurable outcomes.

  • Solve complex technical problems and stay up to date with advances in this rapidly evolving space.

In order to be successful, you must bring

  • At least 2 years of professional software engineering experience.

  • Strong fundamentals in data structures, algorithms, and software design.

  • Proficiency in at least one major programming language, and the ability to work across multiple languages. Our primary stack includes Go and Python.

  • Experience working with relational or NoSQL databases such as Postgres or DynamoDB.

  • Demonstrated ability to use AI coding tools in day-to-day workflows and validate, critique, and refine AI-generated output

  • Comfort operating in a fast-paced environment with a certain level of ambiguity, especially when learning and picking up new technologies when projects require it.

  • You operate with a bias to action, quickly learning what is needed and taking decisive steps to move work forward in ambiguous, fast-paced environments.

Expected salary ranges

  • For candidates living in San Francisco / Bay Area, San Jose, New York City, or Seattle metros, the expected salary range for the role is currently $145,400 - $188,100.

  • For candidates living in Austin, TX or Washington DC metros or in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, or Washington states, the expected salary range for the role is currently $130,900 - $169,400.

  • For candidates living in all other US locations, the expected salary range for this role is currently $123,300 - $159,500.

Actual offered salaries will vary and will be based on various factors, such as calibrated job level, qualifications, skills, competencies, and proficiency for the role.

Thumbtack embraces diversity. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and do not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, age, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, military or veteran status, genetic information, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, provincial, state, or local law. We also will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, consistent with applicable law.

Thumbtack is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation for a medical condition or disability during any part of the application process, please contact: recruitingops@thumbtack.com.

For information about how Thumbtack collects, uses, and shares personal information about job applicants, please see our Job Applicant Privacy Policy.

We put as much craftsmanship into candidate safety as we do into the hiring experience itself. While scammers may try to impersonate our team, we’ll never ask you for money, banking info, or SSNs during hiring. Check out our blueprint on how to spot the fakes.

How we rate this

Software Engineer, AI/ML Infrastructure (US-Based) at Thumbtack rates 90 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

MLOpsMachine Learning InfrastructureDistributed SystemsKubernetesCI/CD

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Pay

This job starts at
$145k
Typical software engineer job
$167k

This posting starts 13% below the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

  1. Tell me about a project where mlops was part of your work. What did you do?
  2. Tell me about a project where machine learning infrastructure was part of your work. What did you do?
  3. Tell me about a project where distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
  4. What's a project where you used Kubernetes hands-on?
  5. Walk me through how you've used CI/CD in your day-to-day work.

Adapt your resume

  • List these exact terms on your resume: MLOps, Machine Learning Infrastructure, Distributed Systems, Kubernetes, and CI/CD. 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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