About the Role
We are looking for a Staff/Lead Software Engineer, AI Infrastructure, to play a critical role in building and scaling the core infrastructure that powers Pika’s AI capabilities. In this position, you will lead the design and implementation of GPU infrastructure, AI model serving APIs, and general AI infrastructure execution—enabling cutting-edge machine learning features that drive our products.
You will be responsible for architecting robust, distributed systems optimized for high-performance AI workloads, large-scale GPU orchestration, and low-latency, reliable API serving. Your work will directly impact the way users experience and interact with generative AI at scale. As a senior technical leader, you’ll also mentor engineers, drive best practices, and set the technical vision for AI infrastructure at Pika.
What You’ll Do
Design, develop, and maintain scalable GPU infrastructure for training and serving state-of-the-art AI models
Architect and optimize high-throughput, low-latency APIs for AI model serving and inference
Lead the orchestration, scheduling, and efficient utilization of heterogeneous GPU resources across clusters
Build and support robust systems for model deployment, monitoring, scaling, and reliability in production environments
Collaborate with ML, backend, and platform engineering teams to deliver seamless AI-powered product features
Drive technical direction, code reviews, and mentorship across the AI Infrastructure team
What We’re Looking For
Strong experience (5+ years) as a software engineer working on systems infrastructure, including hands-on work with ML serving and GPU orchestration
Deep knowledge of distributed systems, Kubernetes (or similar orchestration frameworks), and cloud-native infrastructure (AWS/GCP/Azure)
Proven expertise in building and optimizing APIs for large-scale AI model serving (TensorFlow Serving, Triton, TorchServe, or similar)
Familiarity with the challenges of high-throughput, scalable GPU fleet management, scheduling, and efficient model execution
Proficiency in backend languages such as Python, Go, or C++, and experience optimizing for performance and reliability
Ownership mentality and the drive to solve complex problems independently in ambiguous, high-growth environments
Excellent communication, collaborative, and mentorship skills
Nice to Have
Experience with multi-modal AI model infrastructure (LLMs, generative models, video/image/speech models)
Background in building infra for multi-tenant SaaS, enterprise AI/ML platforms, or operational automation at scale
Previous startup experience or experience leading high-impact projects through ambiguity and rapid iteration
Experience with competitive coding or large-scale distributed computing environments
What We Offer
Competitive salary in the AI industry
Equity in a rapidly growing team shaping the future of AI
Comprehensive health benefits, monthly stipends, and company retreats
A supportive and collaborative office culture—everyone builds, ships, and learns together
About Pika
At Pika, we’re building the infrastructure that empowers everyone to create videos and express ideas through advanced AI. Our team is passionate about removing technical barriers to creativity, and we thrive on working together to solve hard problems. We’re based in Palo Alto, CA, with a collaborative team working in-office 3–5 days a week.
Skills Required
- 5+ years software engineering experience building production services at scale
- 2+ years hands-on with LLM orchestration, multi-agent systems, or agentic solutions
- Proficiency in modern backend technologies: Node.js, Python, Go, and frameworks like Express and FastAPI; TypeScript
- Strong understanding of distributed systems, event-driven microservices, message queues, cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP), Kubernetes, and CI/CD workflows
- Experience integrating and optimizing LLMs (multi-provider routing, context management, streaming responses) and embedding-based retrieval systems
- Experience designing and operating real-time architectures: WebSocket, pub/sub patterns, streaming and concurrent networking
- Database modeling and API design for high-traffic systems (SQL and NoSQL), performance tuning and production reliability
- Ownership mindset, strong communication, mentorship, RFCs, and code review experience
- Experience with multi-modal AI architectures (image/TTS/STT/video generation)
- Experience with agent frameworks (LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGPT) or building custom execution runtimes
- Experience with fine-tuning, RLHF, or DPO pipelines
- Background in multi-tenant SaaS, operational automation, or startup experience
- Competitive coding background (IOI, ICPC, Olympiad)
What We Do
An idea-to-video platform that brings your creativity to motion
