{"schemaVersion":"jobsearcher.job.v1","id":"ac09c33b770f1f8d73f86949","url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/ac09c33b770f1f8d73f86949","canonicalUrl":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/ac09c33b770f1f8d73f86949","title":"ML Engineer, Inference Optimization","description":"About Build AI\n\nBuild AI is the data hyperscaler for Physical AI. We co-design hardware, collection, infrastructure, and research to scale the in-the-wild physical labor dataset by orders of magnitude. We learn from humans doing the real job, in real environments. Inflecting revenue, backed by top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Build is becoming the bottleneck to solving physical labor.\n\nJob Summary\n\nInference is about 90% of compute spend. Economics are heavily driven by inference optimization. We’re hiring someone to make inference cheaper, faster, and good enough that we can scale the data engine and the product without the GPU bill eating the company.\n\nKey Responsibilities\n\nOwn inference performance: latency, throughput, and cost per unit of work (tokens, frames, or jobs)\n\nCut the 90% compute line: kernels, batching, quantization, compilation, serving, and hardware utilization\n\nProfile pipelines (Nsight, PyTorch Profiler, or equivalent), find the real bottleneck, and ship the fix\n\nWork with research and product so models that are accurate are also affordable to run at scale\n\nBuild the serving and eval path so experiments don’t hide the inference bill\n\nMeasure cost as a first-class metric, not an afterthought once quality is “done”\n\nYou may be a good fit if you have (Must-have qualifications)\n\nStrong ML / systems engineer with real inference optimization experience (serving, compilers, CUDA/kernels, quantization, or similar)\n\nComfortable in Python and in C++ or Rust for performance-critical paths\n\nYou think in dollars and tokens/frames per second, not only in accuracy tables\n\nFamiliarity with PyTorch (or JAX) and with profiling tools\n\nComfortable in a small research team shipping under cost pressure\n\nStrong candidates may also have experience with (Nice-to-have qualifications)\n\nCUDA, kernels, compilers (TVM, MLIR, TensorRT), or quantization in production\n\nYou have owned GPU/accelerator cost as a first-class metric\n\nServing stacks for video or large models\n\nUnderstanding of memory hierarchy, data movement, and low-precision compute\n\nBenefits\n\nMedical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage\n\n$500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits\n\nHousing subsidy of $2k per month for those living within walking distance of the office\n\nRelocation support for those moving to San Francisco (Financial District) or Shenzhen (Nanshan)\n\nVarious wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more\n\nDaily lunch and dinner in our office\n\nUnlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification\n\nTravel\n\nHow we're different\n\nBuild believes in the Bitter Lesson. We are betting early on learning from real human work at massive scale, and that the economies of scale of collection beat extra sensors and extra fidelity. Our addressable market is all physical labor, unlike many of our competitors.\n\nWe are a fully in-person team in San Francisco (Financial District) and Shenzhen (Nanshan), and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both and work across disciplines as needed.\n\nBuild AI is an equal opportunity employer. We review every application. If you do not meet every bullet, still apply. Questions: research@build.ai\n\nCompensation Range: $200K - $320K","company":"Build Ai","rawCompany":"build ai","city":"Millbrae","state":"CA","isRemote":false,"isActive":false,"createdAt":"2026-08-31T11:32:26.824Z","occupations":[{"code":"15-1299.08","title":"Computer Systems Engineers/Architects","slug":"computer-systems-engineers-architects"},{"code":"15-1221.00","title":"Computer and Information Research Scientists","slug":"computer-and-information-research-scientists"},{"code":"15-1252.00","title":"Software Developers","slug":"software-developers"}],"industries":[{"code":"513210","title":"Software Publishers","slug":"software-publishers"},{"code":"541511","title":"Custom Computer Programming Services","slug":"custom-computer-programming-services"},{"code":"541990","title":"All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services","slug":"all-other-professional-scientific-and-technical-services"}],"jobPosting":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"JobPosting","title":"ML Engineer, Inference Optimization","description":"About Build AI\n\nBuild AI is the data hyperscaler for Physical AI. We co-design hardware, collection, infrastructure, and research to scale the in-the-wild physical labor dataset by orders of magnitude. We learn from humans doing the real job, in real environments. Inflecting revenue, backed by top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Build is becoming the bottleneck to solving physical labor.\n\nJob Summary\n\nInference is about 90% of compute spend. Economics are heavily driven by inference optimization. We’re hiring someone to make inference cheaper, faster, and good enough that we can scale the data engine and the product without the GPU bill eating the company.\n\nKey Responsibilities\n\nOwn inference performance: latency, throughput, and cost per unit of work (tokens, frames, or jobs)\n\nCut the 90% compute line: kernels, batching, quantization, compilation, serving, and hardware utilization\n\nProfile pipelines (Nsight, PyTorch Profiler, or equivalent), find the real bottleneck, and ship the fix\n\nWork with research and product so models that are accurate are also affordable to run at scale\n\nBuild the serving and eval path so experiments don’t hide the inference bill\n\nMeasure cost as a first-class metric, not an afterthought once quality is “done”\n\nYou may be a good fit if you have (Must-have qualifications)\n\nStrong ML / systems engineer with real inference optimization experience (serving, compilers, CUDA/kernels, quantization, or similar)\n\nComfortable in Python and in C++ or Rust for performance-critical paths\n\nYou think in dollars and tokens/frames per second, not only in accuracy tables\n\nFamiliarity with PyTorch (or JAX) and with profiling tools\n\nComfortable in a small research team shipping under cost pressure\n\nStrong candidates may also have experience with (Nice-to-have qualifications)\n\nCUDA, kernels, compilers (TVM, MLIR, TensorRT), or quantization in production\n\nYou have owned GPU/accelerator cost as a first-class metric\n\nServing stacks for video or large models\n\nUnderstanding of memory hierarchy, data movement, and low-precision compute\n\nBenefits\n\nMedical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage\n\n$500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits\n\nHousing subsidy of $2k per month for those living within walking distance of the office\n\nRelocation support for those moving to San Francisco (Financial District) or Shenzhen (Nanshan)\n\nVarious wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more\n\nDaily lunch and dinner in our office\n\nUnlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification\n\nTravel\n\nHow we're different\n\nBuild believes in the Bitter Lesson. We are betting early on learning from real human work at massive scale, and that the economies of scale of collection beat extra sensors and extra fidelity. Our addressable market is all physical labor, unlike many of our competitors.\n\nWe are a fully in-person team in San Francisco (Financial District) and Shenzhen (Nanshan), and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both and work across disciplines as needed.\n\nBuild AI is an equal opportunity employer. We review every application. If you do not meet every bullet, still apply. Questions: research@build.ai\n\nCompensation Range: $200K - $320K","datePosted":"2026-08-31T11:32:26.824Z","dateModified":"2026-08-31T11:32:26.824Z","hiringOrganization":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Build Ai","sameAs":"https://jobsearcher.com"},"jobLocation":{"@type":"Place","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","addressLocality":"Millbrae","addressRegion":"CA","addressCountry":"US"}},"identifier":{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"JobSearcher","value":"ac09c33b770f1f8d73f86949"},"url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/ac09c33b770f1f8d73f86949"}}