Staff/Principal AI Transformation Engineer

DiDi Labs

$255K — $351K *
Information Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Proven leader in designing complex system-level architectures with hands-on coding experience.
  • Ability to influence and align cross-functional engineering teams towards AI-first engineering without formal authority.
  • Experience in leading large-scale corporate AI-native transformations or building enterprise-grade AI/ML platforms from scratch.
  • Expertise in deploying and optimizing mainstream AI infrastructure tools such as PyTorch and Kubernetes.
  • Years of practical experience with distributed LLM training and large-scale compute operations.

Responsibilities

  • Spearhead the integration of LLM ecosystems and design a unified AI platform architecture.
  • Embed with core teams to identify engineering bottlenecks and streamline AI capabilities into production.
  • Design and implement resilient automation pipelines for LLM deployment and feedback loops.
  • Stay updated on AGI trends and connect external innovations with internal systems.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive health insurance plans.
  • Flexible work arrangements.
  • Professional development opportunities and support for continuing education.
  • Bonuses and equity participation in the company's success.
Full Job Description
About The Role
At DiDi Autonomous Driving, we firmly believe that the future of mobility goes beyond simply "utilizing AI"-it will be fundamentally reimagined and entirely driven by an AI-Native architecture.

We are seeking a visionary, highly technical, and mission-driven Staff or Principal AI Transformation Engineer to act as the ultimate catalyst for our company-wide AI transformation. In this strategic, high-impact leadership role, you will combine cutting-edge Large Language Model (LLM) expertise, robust systems architecture design, and a proven track record of enterprise-level AI scaling. You will embed deeply with our core engineering teams to evolve our traditional R&D organization into a truly AI-Native powerhouse.

Key Responsibilities

  • AI Infrastructure & Platform Architecture: Spearhead the evaluation, selection, and deep integration of frontier LLM ecosystems (e.g., Llama, Hugging Face) and commercial AI platforms. Own the architectural design of our unified, distributed AI platform spanning complex data processing, model training, inference pipelines, and evaluation frameworks.
  • Forward Deployed Execution: Embed directly with core autonomous driving teams (Perception, Prediction, Planning & Control, and Simulation) via the FDE model. Pinpoint engineering bottlenecks, eliminate friction, and translate complex AI capabilities into production-ready internal ecosystems (e.g., AI DevOps, AI Copilots).
  • LLMOps / MLOps Orchestration & Optimization: Design and implement highly resilient, scalable automation pipelines for LLM deployment, monitoring, and continuous feedback loops. Optimize GPU cluster utilization, minimize inference latency, and maximize throughput across large-scale production environments.
  • Technical Roadmap & Vision: Keep a strong pulse on breakthrough trends in AGI and systems engineering. Act as a "super-connector" between external technological innovations and internal systems, ensuring our AI infrastructure maintains a 1-3 year competitive edge.


Qualifications & Experience

  • Architectural Vision + Hands-on Execution: A proven technical leader who can design complex, system-level architectures while maintaining a fierce passion for writing core code, debugging deep system issues, and optimizing low-level execution paths. Proficiency in core languages such as C++, Python, Java, JavaScript, etc.
  • Cross-Functional Influence: Demonstrated ability to build technical authority, align priorities, and drive diverse engineering teams (Algorithms, Infrastructure, Hardware) toward adopting an AI-first engineering paradigm without relying on formal administrative authority.
  • Enterprise AI Transformation: Proven experience leading or heavily contributing to a large-scale corporate "AI-native transformation," or a track record of building enterprise-grade AI/ML platforms from 0 to 1.
  • Deep AI Tech Stack Expertise: Thorough hands-on deployment, tuning, and optimization experience with mainstream AI infrastructure tools and frameworks, including but not limited to PyTorch, Ray, vLLM, Triton Inference Server, Kubernetes, DeepSpeed, and Megatron-LM.
  • Hardcore AI Infra Experience: Years of deep, practical experience in distributed LLM training/inference optimization and large-scale compute cluster infrastructure & operations (I&O).


Preferred Qualifications
  • Domain Expertise: Familiarity with autonomous driving algorithms (Perception, Planning, Control, Simulation), robotics, physics-based simulation engines, or ultra-large-scale ML training/serving clusters is highly preferred.
  • Senior Industry Track Record: 8-10+ years of professional engineering depth in systems software, core cloud infrastructure, or production-grade machine learning platforms.
  • Agentic Frameworks & Developer Productivity: Hands-on experience building custom AI Copilot applications, autonomous Multi-Agent Frameworks, or high-tier developer productivity platforms.
  • Thriving in Complexity: Proven success steering core project delivery amidst complex business logic, fast-paced/high-pressure environments, or mission-critical systems.
  • Technical Influence: An active contributor to the broader tech community (e.g., open-source maintainer/owner, author of high-quality technical blogs/papers, or speaker at premier industry AI/ML conferences).


The base salary range for this full-time position is $255,000 -$351,000 annually in addition to bonus, equity and benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

I acknowledge that prior to submitting this application, I have read and accepted the Privacy Notice for California Residents which is available on https://v.didi.cn/AQnxlBa

Similar Jobs

More Jobs at DiDi Labs

More Information Technology Jobs

Find similar Staff/Principal AI Transformation Engineer jobs: