Backend Software Engineer (Research team)

STAFF SOFTWARE ENGINEER - AI RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE P-1215 At Databricks, we are obsessed with enabling data teams to solve the world’s toughest problems, from security threat detection to cancer drug development. We do this by building and running the world’s best data and AI platform so our customers can focus on the high-value challenges that are central to their own missions. The Databricks AI Research organization enables companies to develop AI models and agents using their own data, with technologies ranging from post-training open source LLMs to developing advanced multi-agent architectures. Databricks AI does so by producing novel science and putting it into production. Databricks AI is committed to the belief that a company’s AI models and agents are just as valuable as any other core IP, and that high-quality AI should be available to all. Job Description As a Staff Software Engineer, AI Research Infrastructure, you will be developing and running the research stack that powers Databricks AI Research. You will design and build services that schedule, orchestrate, and observe large‑scale training and inference experiment workloads across thousands of GPUs, improve our dev tooling and ensure that researchers can iterate quickly without sacrificing reliability, efficiency, or security. You’ll partner closely with research scientists, ML engineers, and platform teams to turn experimental workloads into robust, repeatable pipelines, and to push the limits of what our infrastructure can support. The Impact you will have As a Staff Software Engineer on the AI Research Infra Team at Databricks, you will:  * Design and implement infrastructure that supports large‑scale experiments, data processing, and model training (e.g., HPC clusters, GPU fleets, or cloud‑based systems) * Enable researchers to go from idea to large‑scale experiment in minutes, not days, by building powerful abstractions for job submission, scheduling, and monitoring. * Create tooling that improves research developer productivity, such as experiment management systems, CI/testing infrastructure for research code, and workflows that reduce iteration time. * Influence the long‑term roadmap for research computation, shaping how Databricks AI Research train, evaluate, and ship models to customers. * Serve as a technical mentor and force multiplier for other engineers working on compute, infra, and AI systems. What We Look for * BS/MS or PhD in Computer Science or related field * 5+ years of software engineering experience, including substantial time working on large‑scale distributed systems or infrastructure. * Have deep experience with building and operating distributed systems, data pipelines, or large‑scale backend services, ideally involving GPUs, clusters, or major cloud providers. * Are proficient in one or more systems programming languages (e.g., C++, Rust, Go, Java, Scala) and can design, implement, and debug complex services. * Have built or significantly contributed to cluster schedulers, resource managers, or large‑scale job orchestration systems (e.g., Kubernetes, Slurm, Ray, custom internal systems). * Understand modern ML training and inference workflows (e.g., distributed training, model parallelism, fine‑tuning, evaluation), even if you’re not primarily a research scientist. * Can move fast and be pragmatic in getting things done, while caring about operational excellence. Have driven complex systems from prototype to stable, well‑owned services. * Communicate clearly with both researchers and engineers, and enjoy translating between research needs and infra realities.   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.   Local Pay Range $190,000—$270,000 USD About Databricks Databricks is the data and AI company. More than 10,000 organizations worldwide — including Comcast, Condé Nast, Grammarly, and over 50% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to unify and democratize data, analytics and AI. Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices around the globe and was founded by the original creators of Lakehouse, Apache Spark™, Delta Lake and MLflow. To learn more, follow Databricks on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. 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.

A World-Changing Company   Palantir builds the world’s leading software for data-driven decisions and operations. By bringing the right data to the people who need it, our platforms empower our partners to develop lifesaving drugs, forecast supply chain disruptions, locate missing children, and more. The Role   Backend Software Engineers at Palantir build software at scale to transform how organizations use data. Our Software Engineers are involved throughout the product lifecycle, from idea generation, design, prototyping, and production delivery. You will collaborate closely with technical and non-technical teammates to understand our customers' problems and build products that solve them. We encourage movement across teams to share context, skills, and experience, so you'll learn about many different technologies and aspects of each product. Engineers work autonomously and make decisions independently, within a community that will support and challenge you as you grow and develop, becoming a strong technical contributor and engineering leader.   Our Product Development organization is made up of small teams of Software Engineers. Each team focuses on a specific aspect of a product. Our infrastructure teams are responsible for the lowest layers of our software stack, often focused on database technologies, distributed systems, large scale data systems, security, and application infrastructure. As a Software Engineer on infrastructure, you'll contribute high-quality code to underpin Palantir Foundry and Gotham with performant, secure, and scalable building blocks, enabling products deployed to the most important institutions in the public and private sector. You'll build the foundational capabilities that power our products used by research scientists, aerospace engineers, intelligence analysts, and economic forecasters, in countries around the world.   We’re hiring engineers who are passionate about solving real-world problems and empowering both developers and end-users to work optimally. If you’re motivated to develop reliable, performant, and scalable systems, and to design robust APIs and primitives, this role offers the opportunity to make a significant impact on our products and the people who use them.   Frontline   Foundry Software Engineers may be offered the opportunity to Frontline, an exclusive program unlike any other. This unique, short-term assignment involves being embedded with customers, allowing you to work directly with users and gain firsthand insight into how our products are used and the challenges our customers face. Unlike traditional engineering roles, Frontline immerses you in complex, ambiguous problems, empowering you to deliver impactful solutions across some of the world’s most important industries and institutions.   Some of our most successful products were built on the factory floor, addressing real-world problems for the world's most important institutions. These products were developed by some of our most successful product engineers, who began their careers in roles aligned with Frontline responsibilities, gaining a deep understanding of both our technology and our customers.   Frontliners operate across a broad spectrum of responsibilities, much like a startup CTO. They work in small teams to own the end-to-end execution of high-stakes projects. This spectrum ranges from discussing architecture and building custom web apps to conducting workshops with users and strategizing with customer executives. No two days are alike, as each day is diverse and impactful. By witnessing how customers engage with Foundry and experiencing these pain points firsthand, you’ll gain unique insights that feed directly back into our development process, helping to refine and enhance our products.