Staff / Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Serving - USA

Inworld AI

• $270K — $500K *
Information Technology
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Deep experience in inference optimization with modern serving frameworks like vLLM or TRT-LLM.
  • Hands-on skills in model acceleration techniques such as quantization and speculative decoding.
  • Proficient in high-performance programming with languages/tools like C++, CUDA, Rust, or optimized Python.
  • Experienced in distributed systems, including Kubernetes and multi-GPU inference architecture.
  • Demonstrated contribution to public work, including open-source projects or technical publications.
  • Capability to manage full-cycle model ownership from research to production.
  • Academic or practical background in CS, Physics, Math, or related fields.

Responsibilities

  • Optimize and enhance machine learning model serving efficiency.
  • Implement advanced model acceleration strategies for improved performance.
  • Develop high-performance code for multi-GPU and distributed system deployments.
  • Manage and scale inference systems to handle large volumes of concurrent user requests.
  • Engage in public contributions via open-source initiatives or influential technical writing.
  • Ensure end-to-end reliability of production ML systems through comprehensive testing and maintenance.

Benefits

  • Relocation assistance for candidates moving to Mountain View office.
  • Encouragement to share work and engage in open-source contributions.
  • Flat organizational structure promoting collaboration and fast iteration.
  • Focus on solving unclear problems with minimal bureaucratic processes.
Full Job Description
Who We're Looking For

A year ago, reliably working agentic systems and sub-second multimodal inference at scale barely existed. Nobody has a decade of experience here. So we're not screening for a resume template - we're looking for strong people from varied backgrounds who learn fast, thrive in ambiguity, and can show us what they've built, broken, and understood.

Experience We Find Useful

You don't need all of this. But you need enough to make a case.
  • Inference Optimization. Deep understanding of modern serving frameworks and techniques like vLLM or TRT-LLM.
  • Model Acceleration. Hands-on experience with quantization, distillation, caching strategies , continuous batching, paged attention, and speculative decoding.
  • High-Performance Systems. Proficiency in C++, CUDA, Rust, or highly optimized Python. You know how to profile code and squeeze every ounce of performance out of NVIDIA GPUs.
  • Distributed Systems & Scaling. Experience with Kubernetes, Ray, custom load balancing, multi-GPU/multi-node inference, and reliably handling thousands of concurrent connections.
  • Public work. Non-trivial systems programming projects, open-source contributions to major inference engines, or deep-dive technical write-ups.
  • Full-cycle ownership. You can take a model from the research team, containerize it, optimize its serving, and ensure it runs reliably in production.
  • Background. PhD in CS, Physics, Math, or equivalent practical experience building backend or ML systems.


Who Thrives Here
  • You don't need a roadmap to start walking; you're comfortable picking a direction and building the map as you go.
  • You believe engineering isn't finished until it's shipped and stable. You have a bias for impact over purely theoretical optimizations.
  • You don't just ship code; you obsess over the why. You're the first to question an architecture if you think there's a better way to solve the core latency or throughput problem.
  • You aren't satisfied with "the PM said so." You thrive on deep context and want to understand the fundamental logic behind every decision we make.


What Working Here Is Like

We hand you unclear problems and expect you to make them clear. We value engineers who say "I don't know yet" and then design the benchmark or prototype that finds out. We treat performance, latency, and reliability as first-class product features, not a box to check before launch. Impact comes before everything else, though we support sharing work and open-source contributions that move the field forward. Your work should be visible. Flat structure, fast iterations, minimal process theater.

We believe in the power of in-person collaboration to solve the hardest problems and foster a strong team culture. We offer relocation assistance and look forward to you joining us in our Mountain View office.

The base salary range for this full-time position is $270,000 - $500,000+ bonus + equity + benefits.

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