P-1285
About This RoleAs a staff software engineer for GenAI inference, you will lead the architecture, development, and optimization of the inference engine that powers Databricks Foundation Model API.. You’ll bridge research advances and production demands, ensuring high throughput, low latency, and robust scaling. Your work will encompass the full GenAI inference stack: kernels, runtimes, orchestration, memory, and integration with frameworks and orchestration systems.
What You Will Do- Own and drive the architecture, design, and implementation of the inference engine, and collaborate on model-serving stack optimized for large-scale LLMs inference
- Partner closely with researchers to bring new model architectures or features (sparsity, activation compression, mixture-of-experts) into the engine
- Lead the end-to-end optimization for latency, throughput, memory efficiency, and hardware utilization across GPUs, and accelerators
- Define and guide standards to build and maintain instrumentation, profiling, and tracing tooling to uncover bottlenecks and guide optimizations
- Architect scalable routing, batching, scheduling, memory management, and dynamic loading mechanisms for inference workloads
- Ensure reliability, reproducibility, and fault tolerance in the inference pipelines, including A/B launches, rollback, and model versioning
- Collaborate cross-functionally on Integrating with federated, distributed inference infrastructure – orchestrate across nodes, balance load, handle communication overhead
- Drive cross-team collaboration: with platform engineers, cloud infrastructure, and security/compliance teams
- Represent the team externally through benchmarks, whitepapers, and open-source contributions
- BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science, or a related field
- Strong software engineering background (6+ years or equivalent) in performance-critical systems
- Proven track record of owning complex system components and driving architectural decisions end-to-end
- Deep understanding of ML inference internals: attention, MLPs, recurrent modules, quantization, sparse operations, etc.
- Hands-on experience with CUDA, GPU programming, and key libraries (cuBLAS, cuDNN, NCCL, etc.)
- Strong background in distributed systems design, including RPC frameworks, queuing, RPC batching, sharding, memory partitioning
- Demonstrated ability to uncover and solve performance bottlenecks across layers (kernel, memory, networking, scheduler)
- Experience building instrumentation, tracing, and profiling tools for ML models
- Ability to lead through influence - work closely with ML researchers, translate novel model ideas into production systems
- Excellent communication and leadership skills, with a proactive and ownership-driven mindset
- Bonus: published research or open-source contributions in ML systems, inference optimization, or model serving
Pay Range Transparency
Databricks is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The pay range(s) for this role is listed below and represents the expected salary range for non-commissionable roles or on-target earnings for commissionable roles. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to job-related skills, depth of experience, relevant certifications and training, and specific work location. Based on the factors above, Databricks anticipates utilizing the full width of the range. The total compensation package for this position may also include eligibility for annual performance bonus, equity, and the benefits listed above. For more information regarding which range your location is in visit our page here.
About Databricks
Databricks is the Data and AI company. More than 20,000 organizations worldwide — including adidas, AT&T, Bayer, Block, Mastercard, Rivian, Unilever, and 70% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data + AI Platform to build and scale data and AI apps, analytics and agents. Headquartered in San Francisco with 30+ offices around the globe, Databricks offers a unified platform that includes Genie, Lakebase, Agent Bricks, Lakeflow, Lakehouse, and Unity Catalog. To learn more, follow Databricks on LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and Instagram.
Benefits
At Databricks, we strive to provide comprehensive benefits and perks that meet the needs of all of our employees. For specific details on the benefits offered in your region click here.
Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
At Databricks, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone can excel. We take great care to ensure that our hiring practices are inclusive and meet equal employment opportunity standards. Individuals looking for employment at Databricks are considered without regard to age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other protected characteristics.
Compliance
If access to export-controlled technology or source code is required for performance of job duties, it is within Employer's discretion whether to apply for a U.S. government license for such positions, and Employer may decline to proceed with an applicant on this basis alone.
Skills Required
- BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science, or a related field
- Strong software engineering background (6+ years) in performance-critical systems
- Deep understanding of ML inference internals
- Hands-on experience with CUDA and GPU programming
- Strong background in distributed systems design
- Experience building instrumentation, tracing, and profiling tools for ML models
- Excellent communication and leadership skills
Databricks Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Databricks and has not been reviewed or approved by Databricks.
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Healthcare Strength — Company materials highlight comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage alongside mental-health resources, wellness reimbursements, and business travel insurance. Offerings are described as broad and modern, with core health coverage consistently emphasized.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is explicitly called out, with details such as up to 20 weeks for birthing parents and up to 12 weeks for non-birthing parents in the U.S. Public materials also reference family-forming support, reinforcing the focus on families.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Wellness programs and perks include gym reimbursement, periodic wellness events (e.g., yoga, massages), and in-office meals and snacks in many locations. Personal development funds and discounts further enhance lifestyle and growth support.
Databricks Insights
What We Do
As the leader in Unified Data Analytics, Databricks helps organizations make all their data ready for analytics, empower data science and data-driven decisions across the organization, and rapidly adopt machine learning to outpace the competition. By providing data teams with the ability to process massive amounts of data in the Cloud and power AI with that data, Databricks helps organizations innovate faster and tackle challenges like treating chronic disease through faster drug discovery, improving energy efficiency, and protecting financial markets.
