Staff Software Engineer - AI Research Infrastructure - Databricks Skip to main content Login Why Databricks Discover For App Developers For Executives For Startups Lakehouse Architecture Databricks AI Research Customers Customer Stories Partners Partner Overview Explore the Databricks partner ecosystem Partner Spotlight Featured partner announcements Partner Program Explore benefits, tiers and how to become a partner Cloud Providers Databricks on AWS, Azure and GCP Find a Partner Discover Databricks partners for your needs Partner Solutions Find custom industry and migration solutions Product Databricks Platform Platform Overview A unified platform for data, analytics and AI Data Management Data reliability, security and performance Sharing An open, secure, zero-copy sharing for all data Data Warehousing Serverless data warehouse for SQL analytics Governance Unified governance for all data, analytics and AI assets Data Engineering ETL and orchestration for batch and streaming data Artificial Intelligence Build and deploy ML and GenAI applications Data Science Collaborative data science at scale Business Intelligence Intelligent analytics for real-world data Application Development Quickly build secure data and AI apps Database Postgres for data apps and AI agents Security Open agentic SIEM built for the AI era Integrations and Data Marketplace Open marketplace for data, analytics and AI IDE Integrations Build on the Lakehouse in your favorite IDE Partner Connect Discover and integrate with the Databricks ecosystem Pricing Databricks Pricing Explore product pricing, DBUs and more Cost Calculator Estimate your compute costs on any cloud Open Source Open Source Technologies Learn more about the innovations behind the platform Solutions Databricks for Industries Communications Media and Entertainment Financial Services Public Sector Healthcare & Life Sciences Retail Manufacturing See All Industries Cross Industry Solutions AI Agents AI Governance Cybersecurity Marketing Migration & Deployment Data Migration Professional Services Solution Accelerators Explore Accelerators Move faster toward outcomes that matter Resources Learning Training Discover curriculum tailored to your needs Databricks Academy Sign in to the Databricks learning platform Certification Gain recognition and differentiation Free Edition Learn professional Data and AI tools for free University Alliance Want to teach Databricks? See how. Events Data + AI Summit Data + AI World Tour AI Days Event Calendar Blog and Podcasts Databricks Blog Explore news, product announcements, and more AI Blog Explore our AI research and engineering work Data Brew Podcast Let’s talk data! Champions of Data + AI Podcast Insights from data leaders powering innovation Get Help Customer Support Documentation Community Dive Deep Resource Center Demo Center Architecture Center About Company Who We Are Our Team Databricks Ventures Contact Us Careers Working at Databricks Open Jobs Press Awards and Recognition Newsroom Security and Trust Security and Trust DATA + AI SUMMIT JUNE 15–18 | SAN FRANCISCO Join us at the world’s largest data, apps and AI event. Register Ready to get started? Get a Demo DATA + AI SUMMIT JUNE 15–18 | SAN FRANCISCO Join us at the world’s largest data, apps and AI event. Register Login Try Databricks Overview Culture Benefits Diversity Engineering Research Students & new grads Back to search results Staff Software Engineer - AI Research Infrastructure New York City, New York; San Francisco, California Apply now 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. Why Databricks Discover For App Developers For Executives For Startups Lakehouse Architecture Databricks AI Research Customers Customer Stories Partners Partner Overview Partner Program Find a Partner Partner Spotlight Cloud Providers Partner Solutions Why Databricks Discover For App Developers For Executives For Startups Lakehouse Architecture Databricks AI Research Customers Customer Stories Partners Partner Overview Partner Program Find a Partner Partner Spotlight Cloud Providers Partner Solutions Product Databricks Platform Platform Overview Sharing Governance Artificial Intelligence Business Intelligence Database Data Management Data Warehousing Data Engineering Data Science Application Development Security Pricing Pricing Overview Pricing Calculator Open Source Integrations and Data Marketplace IDE Integrations Partner Connect Product Databricks Platform Platform Overview Sharing Governance Artificial Intelligence Business Intelligence Database Data Management Data Warehousing Data Engineering Data Science Application Development Security Pricing Pricing Overview Pricing Calculator Open Source Integrations and Data Marketplace IDE Integrations Partner Connect Solutions Databricks For Industries Communications Financial Services Healthcare and Life Sciences Manufacturing Media and Entertainment Public Sector Retail View All Cross Industry Solutions AI Agents AI Governance Cybersecurity Marketing Data Migration Professional Services Solution Accelerators Solutions Databricks For Industries Communications Financial Services Healthcare and Life Sciences Manufacturing Media and Entertainment Public Sector Retail View All Cross Industry Solutions AI Agents AI Governance Cybersecurity Marketing Data Migration Professional Services Solution Accelerators Resources Documentation Customer Support Community Learning Training Certification Free Edition University Alliance Databricks Academy Login Events Data + AI Summit Data + AI World Tour AI Days Event Calendar Blog and Podcasts Databricks Blog AI Blog Data Brew Podcast Champions of Data & AI Podcast Resources Documentation Customer Support Community Learning Training Certification Free Edition University Alliance Databricks Academy Login Events Data + AI Summit Data + AI World Tour AI Days Event Calendar Blog and Podcasts Databricks Blog AI Blog Data Brew Podcast Champions of Data & AI Podcast About Company Who We Are Our Team Databricks Ventures Contact Us Careers Open Jobs Working at Databricks Press Awards and Recognition Newsroom Security and Trust About Company Who We Are Our Team Databricks Ventures Contact Us Careers Open Jobs Working at Databricks Press Awards and Recognition Newsroom Security and Trust Databricks Inc. 160 Spear Street, 15th Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 1-866-330-0121 See Careers at Databricks © Databricks 2026 . All rights reserved. Apache, Apache Spark, Spark, the Spark Logo, Apache Iceberg, Iceberg, and the Apache Iceberg logo are trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation . Privacy Notice | Terms of Use | Modern Slavery Statement | California Privacy | Your Privacy Choices
Salary
$190,000 - $270,000
Location
New York City, New York
Experience
5+ years
Ali Ghodsi
CEO