About the Opportunity
About Khoury College
Khoury College is committed to building a community of belonging among students, faculty and staff. We strongly encourage applicants from individuals with disabilities, veterans, and those with varied experiences and backgrounds. We invite you to join a fast-moving, ambitious college with an underlying mission that is driven by our motto of “CS for Everyone.”
About the National Deep Inference Fabric
The National Deep Inference Fabric (NDIF) is an artificial intelligence (AI) research infrastructure project funded by $9 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and more than $4 million from private foundations. Its mission is to create an innovative, highly transparent, large-scale AI inference infrastructure that enables cutting-edge scientific research on the largest open AI models.
Job Summary
NDIF is seeking an experienced Site Reliability Engineer to advance the reliability and coordinate the day-to-day operations of its growing research platform. This role creates systems that keep distributed services healthy and available, makes clusters easier to debug and operate, and builds tooling that enables the platform to scale as demand and deployments grow. This is a hands-on role with significant latitude for assessing complex technical problems, determining priorities, and delivering innovations with minimal oversight. A research background is not required, but knowledge of machine learning operations (MLOps) is highly desirable. The successful candidate will have experience operating production systems, a commitment to operating them well, and motivation to contribute to AI safety and interpretability.
Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities
- Measure and improve the reliability, availability, and performance of the platform used by research teams
- Build and maintain observability systems so issues are detected early and debugging is proactive rather than reactive
- Improve operational tooling and automation, including continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), automated testing, and infrastructure as code
- Create effective workflows for debugging and resolving issues across the distributed stack, including Ray connectivity, graphics processing unit (GPU) and resource allocation, and scheduling
- Partner with the broader NDIF team to keep the system dependable and usable as user needs evolve
- Establish and advocate for operational best practices as the platform grows
Minimum Qualifications
Required
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
- At least 3 years of experience or more in site reliability engineering (SRE) or a closely related role
- Experience operating distributed systems in production, with a track record of owning complex systems end to end
- Strong Python skills and comfort working with backend services
- Experience with observability tooling such as Prometheus and Grafana, or equivalent tools
- Working command of CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and infrastructure as code
- Judgment to debug and optimize systems with minimal guidance, along with communication skills that keep teams aligned
- Genuine interest in AI safety, interpretability, and supporting interdisciplinary research
Preferred
- Knowledge of MLOps
Required Documents
- Resume
Position Type
Information TechnologyAdditional Information
Northeastern University considers factors such as candidate work experience, education and skills when extending an offer.
Northeastern has a comprehensive benefits package for benefit eligible employees. This includes medical, vision, dental, paid time off, tuition assistance, wellness & life, retirement- as well as commuting & transportation. Visit https://hr.northeastern.edu/benefits/ for more information.
All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
Compensation Grade/Pay Type:
111SExpected Hiring Range:
$87,785.00 - $123,998.75With the pay range(s) shown above, the starting salary will depend on several factors, which may include your education, experience, location, knowledge and expertise, and skills as well as a pay comparison to similarly-situated employees already in the role. Salary ranges are reviewed regularly and are subject to change.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
- At least 3 years of experience in site reliability engineering or a closely related role
- Experience operating distributed systems in production and owning complex systems end to end
- Strong Python skills and comfort working with backend services
- Experience with observability tooling such as Prometheus and Grafana, or equivalent tools
- Working command of CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and infrastructure as code
- Ability to debug and optimize systems with minimal guidance and communicate effectively with teams
- Genuine interest in AI safety, interpretability, and supporting interdisciplinary research
- Knowledge of MLOps
Northeastern University Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Northeastern University and has not been reviewed or approved by Northeastern University.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Paid time off is described as extensive, including 22–26 vacation days, 12 sick days, 13 holidays, and paid parental leave for birth/adoption. Additional paid leave is also outlined, including up to 26 weeks of paid medical leave and up to 12 weeks of paid family leave for eligible employees.
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Retirement Support — Retirement support is positioned as a standout, with an employer contribution described as 10% when an employee contributes 5%, alongside immediate vesting once eligible. This is presented as unusually generous relative to typical employer retirement offerings.
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Parental & Family Support — Family-oriented benefits are emphasized through tuition assistance for employees and dependents and access to backup childcare and family-care resources. Tuition remission/discount structures are highlighted as a major value driver, especially for employees with children and for long-tenured staff.
Northeastern University Insights
What We Do
Founded in 1898, Northeastern is a global research university with a distinctive, experience-driven approach to education and discovery. The university is a leader in experiential learning, powered by the world’s most far-reaching cooperative education program. We integrate classroom study with opportunities for professional work, research, service, and global learning in more than 100 countries. The same spirit of collaboration guides a use-inspired research enterprise focused on solving global challenges in health, security, and sustainability. Northeastern offers a comprehensive array of undergraduate and graduate programs leading to degrees through the doctorate in nine colleges and schools, and select graduate programs at campuses in Boston, Charlotte, N.C., San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and Toronto. Campuses in Burlington, MA, and Nahant, MA, are home to research institutes for homeland security and coastal sustainability, respectively
