Senior Platform Engineer – AI/ML Infrastructure & Reliability

Senior Platform Engineer — AI/ML Infrastructure & ReliabilitySan Francisco, CA | Onsite 5 Days/Week | Full-Time$210,000–$260,000 Base + EquityAbout the CompanyOur client is a fast-growing San Francisco technology company building an advanced AI platform on high-performance distributed infrastructure.The engineering organization is small and highly technical. Engineers work closely with software teams, applied scientists, product, and leadership, with significant individual ownership and a short path from identifying a problem to deploying a production solution.About the RoleWe're looking for a senior platform engineer who is fundamentally a builder.This is not a production operations role. We're looking for someone who has personally owned substantial technical projects end-to-end:Problem → architecture → implementation → deployment → ownership.You'll build foundational platform and infrastructure capabilities supporting advanced AI, data, and distributed workloads. Some projects will start with well-defined requirements; others will begin with an ambiguous technical problem that you will help define and solve.The strongest candidates have experience in fast-growing startup environments, where engineers operate with significant autonomy, responsibilities are broad, and building from scratch is part of the job.What You'll DoOwn platform and infrastructure projects from initial problem through productionDesign and build Kubernetes and container-based infrastructureDevelop internal tooling, automation, and platform softwareBuild reusable Infrastructure-as-Code and deployment systemsCreate CI/CD, GitOps, and developer self-service capabilitiesSolve technical problems across Linux, networking, storage, cloud, and distributed systemsBuild reliability and observability into systems from the beginningPartner directly with engineers, scientists, product teams, and technical leadershipOwn and evolve the systems you build after launchWhat We're Looking For8+ years in platform engineering, infrastructure engineering, production engineering, SRE, DevOps, systems engineering, or related software engineeringDirect experience owning significant technical projects end-to-endEvidence of building or substantially redesigning systems—not simply operating themStrong Linux and systems fundamentalsHands-on production Kubernetes experienceTerraform or comparable Infrastructure-as-Code expertisePython, Go, or comparable programming/automation experienceExperience building CI/CD, deployment automation, or developer-platform capabilitiesStrong troubleshooting and distributed-systems fundamentalsAbility to make architectural tradeoffs across performance, reliability, security, cost, and complexityComfort operating independently when requirements are incomplete or changingThese Skills Are a PlusFast-growing startup experienceFounding or early infrastructure/platform engineering experienceGPU, NVIDIA, or HPC infrastructureAI/ML training or inference infrastructureDistributed compute or high-throughput systemsKafka, Spark, Airflow, Ray, or DatabricksAdvanced networking or distributed storageInternal developer platformsGitOps, ArgoCD, Helm, or service mesh technologiesYou'll Thrive Here IfYou enjoy building more than maintaining. You want meaningful technical ownership, are comfortable moving outside a narrow specialty, and don't need someone assigning your next ticket.You can take an ambiguous problem, determine what needs to be built, evaluate the tradeoffs, design the solution, implement it, and take responsibility for the result.Why JoinBuild foundational systems rather than simply maintain existing infrastructureOwn technically meaningful projects from concept through productionWork on challenging AI, distributed-systems, data, and compute problemsJoin a small engineering organization where individual contributions matterWork directly with highly technical engineers, scientists, and leadership$210,000–$260,000 base salary plus equityWork Authorization: Candidates must be currently authorized to work in the United States. This position is not eligible for new or future employer-sponsored work authorization.