Senior Principal Machine Learning Engineer

The role

You will design, develop, and optimize machine learning models, specifically Large Language Models, to run on SambaNova's RDU hardware. This role involves hardware-software co-design and guiding the integration of LLM solutions into SambaStack and SambaCloud.

What you will do

• Define and drive technical strategy for ML model development, training pipelines, and inference systems
• Lead hardware-software co-design efforts with compiler, systems, and hardware teams
• Identify, evaluate, and champion state-of-the-art ML techniques
• Serve as the senior technical voice in design reviews and architectural decisions
• Mentor and develop principal and senior ML engineers
• Partner with product and engineering leadership to translate ML capabilities into customer-facing solutions
• Drive resolution of complex, ambiguous technical challenges

Required qualifications

• B.S. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field
• 8+ years of industry experience in machine learning engineering
• Demonstrated record of technical leadership on large-scale or novel ML systems
• Deep expertise in LLM training, fine-tuning, inference optimization, and evaluation at scale
• Strong background in ML algorithms, deep learning architectures, and modern training methodologies
• Ability to lead and align cross-functional technical efforts and mentor senior engineers
• Track record of independently scoping and delivering high-complexity, high-ambiguity technical projects

Nice to have

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field
• Experience with hardware-software co-design with non-GPU accelerators
• Publications or open-source contributions in LLM training or inference
• Experience with speculative decoding, mixture-of-experts, or long-context modeling in production
• Experience with reinforcement learning for post-training
• Familiarity with compiler or kernel-level optimization for ML workloads

Benefits

• Base salary plus equity
• 95% premium coverage for employee medical insurance
• 77% premium coverage for dependents
• Health Savings Account (HSA) with employer contribution
• Dental, Vision, Short/Long term Disability, Basic Life, Voluntary Life, and AD&D insurance plans
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA) options like Health Care, Limited Purpose, and Dependent Care
• Headspace subscription
• Gympass+ membership
• One Medical membership
• Counseling services with an Employee Assistance Program

About the company

SambaNova is a leader in next-generation AI infrastructure, delivering a full-stack inference platform for customers worldwide. Its technology is centered on the RDU (Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit).