Staff Backend Software Engineer
About the role
As part of the AI Platform team, you'll build the substrate that powers everything from data apps, AI agents, model training, model serving, and Vector Search. You'll be joining a high-agency, high-visibility team operating at the frontier of AI infrastructure — with deep ties to research, product, and real-world enterprise use cases. Databricks Mosaic AI is one of our fastest-growing businesses, helping thousands of our customers democratize AI within their organizations. We're building the infrastructure that powers the next generation of AI.
What You Will Do
- Build LLM infrastructure powering trillions of tokens per week for customers through partner models (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini) and self hosted models (Qwen, GPT-OSS, Llama)
- Improve reliability, latency, and efficiency of distributed AI workloads
- Collaborate with platform, infra, and ML teams to deliver seamless end-to-end experiences
- Shape how developers and data scientists build and interact with AI on Databricks
What We Look For
- 8+ years of experience in backend or infrastructure engineering
- Strong programming skills in Scala, Go, or Python
- Experience with distributed systems, scalable APIs, or cloud-native infrastructure
- Familiarity with service-oriented architecture, deployment pipelines, and system observability
- Strong product and ownership mindset — you care about building the right solution, not just any solution
Bonus Points
- Experience with real-time serving, ML infrastructure, or GPU orchestration
- Exposure to platforms like SageMaker, Vertex AI, or Azure ML
- Contributions to OSS projects like MLflow, PyTorch, Ray, vLLM, SGLang
- Built developer platforms or internal tools supporting AI workflows
Pay
Local pay range: $190,000—$261,250 USD. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors unique to each candidate, including job-related skills, depth of experience, relevant certifications and training, and specific work location. The total compensation package may also include eligibility for annual performance bonus and equity.
Benefits
Databricks strives to provide comprehensive benefits and perks that meet the needs of all employees. For specific details on the benefits offered in your region, click here.