The Role
We are searching for one of the absolute best ML inference engineers in the industry—someone excited to architect and scale a cutting-edge inference system that becomes the backbone of Cognitiv’s ML-driven products.
In this role, you will define what inference means to Cognitiv and lead the cross-organizational effort to bring that vision to life. You’ll build performance-critical systems powering real-time decision-making for some of the world’s biggest brands, while helping shape the future of AI in AdTech.
This role is foundational. It is high-impact. And it is a rare opportunity to build both the system and the team around one of the most strategic technical pillars in the company.
What You’ll Do
- Build Production AdTech Systems: Design and implement reliable software and infrastructure that serves large-scale machine learning models in real-world production environments.
- Optimize for Performance at Scale: Improve throughput and latency using a mix of industry-standard frameworks and custom-built solutions tailored to Cognitiv’s workloads.
- Set the Vision & Influence Execution: Define the technical direction for inference initiatives, articulate a clear vision, and influence teams across the organization to align and execute against it.
- Bridge Research to Production: Identify long-term risks and emerging technical breakthroughs, partnering closely with Research, Product, and Engineering to translate ML capabilities into business impact.
- Grow the Technical Community: Mentor engineers through code reviews, design reviews, and pair programming while elevating technical collaboration across the organization.
- Set and Automate Standards: Establish best practices for coding, testing, observability, and security — and embed them into the platform through automation.
Tech Stack
- Languages: C++17+, C#, Java
- Cloud: AWS, GCP, or Azure
- Infrastructure: Terraform, Ansible, containers
- ML: PyTorch ecosystem & model serving
- Optimization: parallelism, quantization, tiling
- Hardware Acceleration: GPU inference
Who You Are
- Strong C++ Systems Engineer: 5+ years building performance-critical software in C++17 or later, with a focus on reliability, efficiency, and production quality.
- Infrastructure-Minded Builder: Comfortable working with infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Ansible, etc.) and thinking beyond code into deployment, reproducibility, and operational scalability.
- End-to-End Owner: You naturally take services from planning and design through implementation, delegation, testing, release, and ongoing operation — and feel accountable for outcomes, not just code.
- Clear Technical Communicator: You can articulate complex technical ideas simply, shape organization-level technical narratives, and drive alignment across Engineering, Research, and Product.
Bonus Points If You Have:
- Familiar with PyTorch or equivalent ML framework
- Experience with deep learning optimization (parallelism, quantization, tiling, etc.)
- Experience with GPU/hardware acceleration (NVIDIA TensorRT, etc.)
- Experience with ML Ops technologies (model lifecycle management, ML integrated platforms, model observability, automation, etc.)
- Familiar with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes, etc.)
- Experience with advanced ML architectures (two-tower models, teacher-student learning, etc.)
- Experience with Rust
- Experience with AI development technology (AI code review, AI code assistants, etc.)
Salary: $260,000 - $320,000 USD Base Salary + Equity
- Medical, dental & vision coverage (some plans 100% employer-paid)
- 12 weeks paid parental leave + 4 weeks WFH
- Unlimited PTO + Work-From-Anywhere August
- Career development with clear advancement paths
- Equity for all employees
- Hybrid work model & daily team lunch
- Health & wellness stipend + cell phone reimbursement
- 401(k) with employer match
- Parking (CA & WA offices) & pre-tax commuter benefits
- Employee Assistance Program
- Comprehensive onboarding (Cognitiv University)
- …and more!
- Festiv – We make work fun with cross-team games, events, and creative team bonding.
- Responsiv – You’ll be close to clients and leadership, influencing real outcomes.
- Inclusiv – Diversity and individuality are celebrated across all levels.
- Inventiv – We reward curiosity and embrace bold ideas.
- Transformativ – We support your growth with training, mentorship, and flexibility.
- Collaborativ – We operate across coasts, connected by purpose and teamwork.
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What We Do
Cognitiv is a deep learning advertising company redefining how brands connect with consumers. Since 2015, we have built a custom AI platform that predicts consumer behavior in real time and drives performance at scale. Advertisers can activate through their preferred DSP, our managed service DSP, or our industry-first ContextGPT product. By combining advanced data science with flexible activation, we deliver precision, relevance, and measurable impact across channels.
Why Work With Us
At Cognitiv, you will work on real-world AI that directly shapes media performance. We are profitable, growing, and deeply technical, with close access to leadership and clients. We value curiosity, collaboration, and ownership, and we invest in your growth through equity, flexibility, and clear career paths.
