Staff Software Engineer, Platform Infrastructure (Foundations)

Anyscale is hiring a Staff Software Engineer, Platform Infrastructure (Foundations) for a remote role open to applicants in United States. It pays $215k-$265k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Anyscale.

Level's read on this job

Level rates this software engineer role Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
The listed pay starts 29% above the typical software engineer posting on Level.
The posting lists this role as remote.
Tools and skills the posting cites include OpenAI, Ray and Kubernetes.
Level lists 22 other open roles at Anyscale.

AI in this role

Lead technical vision and architecture for distributed AI workload infrastructure and Ray orchestration.

OpenAIRayKubernetesGPUsTpus

distributed-systemsinfrastructurecloud-nativearchitecture

About Anyscale:

At Anyscale, we're on a mission to democratize distributed computing and make it accessible to software developers of all skill levels. We’re commercializing Ray, a popular open-source project that's creating an ecosystem of libraries for scalable machine learning. Companies like OpenAI, Uber, Spotify, Instacart, Cruise, and many more, have Ray in their tech stacks to accelerate the progress of AI applications out into the real world.

With Anyscale, we’re building the best place to run Ray, so that any developer or data scientist can scale an ML application from their laptop to the cluster without needing to be a distributed systems expert.

Proud to be backed by Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, and Addition with $250+ million raised to date.

About the Role

Anyscale is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead the technical vision for our Infrastructure team. As a Staff Engineer, you will be responsible for the architectural evolution of our control plane and data plane, ensuring that our "infinite laptop" vision scales to meet the most demanding distributed AI workloads in the world. You will act as a force multiplier, setting the standards for Kubernetes-based cloud-native infrastructure while mentoring engineers and driving cross-functional alignment across the Ray open-source community and our proprietary product teams.

Key Responsibilities

Architectural Leadership: Define and drive the multi-year technical roadmap for services that orchestrate Ray clusters across diverse cloud and on-premises environments.
Systemic Optimization: Lead the design and optimization of high-performance control plane components specifically tailored for large-scale, heterogeneous AI/ML workloads.
Platform Reliability: Establish the organization-wide standards for the reliability, scalability, and observability of Anyscale-managed infrastructure.
Strategic Integration: Direct the long-term strategy for accelerator integration (GPUs, TPUs) and container management to ensure seamless execution of distributed workloads.
Technical Governance: Lead complex design and architecture discussions, resolving deep technical debt and ensuring engineering excellence across the organization.
Cross-Functional Influence: Partner with ML experts and customer-facing teams to translate market needs into robust infrastructure foundations.

Qualifications

Experience: 5+ years of experience writing high-quality production code and leading complex distributed systems projects.
Architectural Depth: Proven track record of designing and maintaining highly available, scalable, and secure cloud-native platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
Kubernetes Mastery: Deep expertise in Kubernetes-based deployments and container orchestration at massive scale.
System Foundations: Advanced knowledge of Linux kernel, networking, and low-level operating system foundations.
Technical Proficiency: Mastery of Go and Python, with the ability to set coding standards and best practices for the team.
Leadership Skills: Demonstrated ability to mentor senior engineers, influence technical direction without direct authority, and navigate complex trade-offs in a fast-paced environment.

Why Anyscale

We're on a mission to make scalable computing effortless. Ray is the AI Compute Engine at the center of some of the world's most powerful AI platforms
Our tech is in production at companies like OpenAI, Uber, Spotify, Instacart, and Cruise
We're backed by Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, and Addition, with $250M+ raised to date
Recent partnerships with Azure, CoreWeave, and Google Cloud are putting AI-native compute directly into enterprise environments
Competitive salary and equity, plus health/dental/vision coverage (many plans up to 99% employer-covered)
We offer flexible time off, paid parental leave, and mental health support

Anyscale Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Candidates are evaluated without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, disability, national origin, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal or state law.

Anyscale Inc. is an E-Verify company and you may review the Notice of E-Verify Participation and the Right to Work posters in English and Spanish

How we rate this

Staff Software Engineer, Platform Infrastructure (Foundations) at Anyscale rates 85 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.

●●●● 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.

Key facts

Staff Software Engineer, Platform Infrastructure (Foundations) is an open job at Anyscale.
Level rates this role AI Level 4 of 4: Builds AI.
The listed salary is $215k-$265k a year.
The role is based in San Francisco and is marked remote.
The job was posted on September 21, 2026.
Seniority: senior.
Applications are handled by Anyscale. Apply on Anyscale

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Distributed SystemsInfrastructureCloud NativeArchitectureOpenAIRayKubernetesGPUs

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

LLM C++AI agents Java Generative AI TypeScript

Pay

This job starts at: $215k
Typical software engineer job: $167k

This posting starts 29% above the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where infrastructure was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where cloud native was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where architecture was part of your work. What did you do?
Walk me through how you've used OpenAI in your day-to-day work.

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Distributed Systems, Infrastructure, Cloud Native, Architecture, and OpenAI. 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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