Strategic Overview
Staff Backend Software Engineer- (AI Platform) at Databricks is defined by the responsibilities and candidate requirements in the employer's listing.
The published role emphasizes work such as Design and implement core systems and APIs that power Databricks Model Serving, ensuring scalability, reliability, and operational excellence.
The role is listed for San Francisco, California, giving candidates the practical context needed to assess fit before applying.
Key information at a glance
About This Role
At Databricks, we are passionate about enabling data teams to solve the world's toughest problems — from making the next mode of transportation a reality to accelerating the development of medical breakthroughs. We do this by building and running the world's best data and AI infrastructure platform so our customers can use deep data insights to improve their business.
Databricks’ Model Serving product provides enterprises with a unified, scalable, and governed platform to deploy and manage AI/ML models — from traditional ML to fine-tuned and proprietary large language models. It offers real-time, low-latency inference, governance, monitoring, and lineage.
As a Staff Engineer, you’ll play a critical role in shaping both the product experience and the foundational infrastructure of Model Serving. You will design and build systems that enable high-throughput, low-latency inference across CPU and GPU workloads, influence architectural direction, and collaborate closely across platform, product, infrastructure, and research teams to deliver a world-class serving platform.
Key Responsibilities & Objectives
- Design and implement core systems and APIs that power Databricks Model Serving, ensuring scalability, reliability, and operational excellence.
- Partner with product and engineering leadership to define the technical roadmap and long-term architecture for serving workloads.
- Drive architectural decisions and trade-offs to optimize performance, throughput, autoscaling, and operational efficiency for CPU and GPU serving workloads.
- Contribute directly to key components across the serving infrastructure — from model container builds and deployment workflows to runtime systems like routing, caching, observability, and intelligent autoscaling — ensuring smooth and efficient operations at scale.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with product, platform, and research teams to translate customer needs into reliable and performant systems.
- Lead technical initiatives that improve latency, availability, and cost-effectiveness across both customer-facing and foundational serving layers.
- Establish best practices for code quality, testing, and operational readiness, and mentor other engineers through design reviews and technical guidance.
- Strong foundation in algorithms, data structures, and system design as applied to large-scale, low-latency serving systems.
- Experience leading architecture for large-scale, performance-sensitive CPU/GPU inference systems.
Required Qualifications & Candidate Blueprint
- 10+ years of experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems.
- Deep expertise in model serving, inference systems, and related infrastructure (e.g., routing, scheduling, autoscaling, and observability).
- Proven ability to deliver technically complex, high-impact initiatives that create measurable customer or business value.
- Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across teams in fast-moving environments.
- Strategic and product-oriented mindset with the ability to align technical execution with long-term vision.
Salary & Benefits
Published compensation: $192,000 – $260,000 USD
- At Databricks, we strive to provide comprehensive benefits and perks that meet the needs of all of our employees. For specific details on the benefits offered in your region click here.
Salary Benchmark
This role’s published compensation is compared with active employer-disclosed ranges for the same role at the Staff level, in the same currency and pay period.
Benchmark uses active employer job postings in our database, excludes this listing, and matches the currency and pay period. It is not a third-party salary estimate; currencies are not converted.
Full Job Description
The following is the complete job description supplied by the source. We sanitize unsafe markup and remove external links, but do not shorten or rewrite the employer's source content.
At Databricks, we are passionate about enabling data teams to solve the world's toughest problems — from making the next mode of transportation a reality to accelerating the development of medical breakthroughs. We do this by building and running the world's best data and AI infrastructure platform so our customers can use deep data insights to improve their business.
Databricks’ Model Serving product provides enterprises with a unified, scalable, and governed platform to deploy and manage AI/ML models — from traditional ML to fine-tuned and proprietary large language models. It offers real-time, low-latency inference, governance, monitoring, and lineage. As AI adoption accelerates, Model Serving is a core pillar of the Databricks platform, enabling customers to operationalize models at scale with strong SLAs and cost efficiency.
As a Staff Engineer, you’ll play a critical role in shaping both the product experience and the foundational infrastructure of Model Serving. You will design and build systems that enable high-throughput, low-latency inference across CPU and GPU workloads, influence architectural direction, and collaborate closely across platform, product, infrastructure, and research teams to deliver a world-class serving platform.
The impact you will have:
- Design and implement core systems and APIs that power Databricks Model Serving, ensuring scalability, reliability, and operational excellence.
- Partner with product and engineering leadership to define the technical roadmap and long-term architecture for serving workloads.
- Drive architectural decisions and trade-offs to optimize performance, throughput, autoscaling, and operational efficiency for CPU and GPU serving workloads.
- Contribute directly to key components across the serving infrastructure — from model container builds and deployment workflows to runtime systems like routing, caching, observability, and intelligent autoscaling — ensuring smooth and efficient operations at scale.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with product, platform, and research teams to translate customer needs into reliable and performant systems.
- Lead technical initiatives that improve latency, availability, and cost-effectiveness across both customer-facing and foundational serving layers.
- Establish best practices for code quality, testing, and operational readiness, and mentor other engineers through design reviews and technical guidance.
- Represent the team in cross-organizational technical discussions and influence Databricks’ broader AI platform strategy.
What we look for:
- 10+ years of experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems.
- Deep expertise in model serving, inference systems, and related infrastructure (e.g., routing, scheduling, autoscaling, and observability).
- Strong foundation in algorithms, data structures, and system design as applied to large-scale, low-latency serving systems.
- Proven ability to deliver technically complex, high-impact initiatives that create measurable customer or business value.
- Experience leading architecture for large-scale, performance-sensitive CPU/GPU inference systems.
- Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across teams in fast-moving environments.
- Strategic and product-oriented mindset with the ability to align technical execution with long-term vision.
- Passion for mentoring, growing engineers, and fostering technical excellence.
Pay Range Transparency
Databricks is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The pay range(s) for this role is listed below and represents the expected salary range for non-commissionable roles or on-target earnings for commissionable roles. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to job-related skills, depth of experience, relevant certifications and training, and specific work location. Based on the factors above, Databricks anticipates utilizing the full width of the range. The total compensation package for this position may also include eligibility for annual performance bonus, equity, and the benefits listed above. For more information regarding which range your location is in visit our page here.
About Databricks
Databricks is the Data and AI company. More than 20,000 organizations worldwide — including adidas, AT&T, Bayer, Block, Mastercard, Rivian, Unilever, and 70% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data + AI Platform to build and scale data and AI apps, analytics and agents. Headquartered in San Francisco with 30+ offices around the globe, Databricks offers a unified platform that includes Genie, Lakebase, Agent Bricks, Lakeflow, Lakehouse, and Unity Catalog. To learn more, follow Databricks on LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and Instagram.
Benefits
At Databricks, we strive to provide comprehensive benefits and perks that meet the needs of all of our employees. For specific details on the benefits offered in your region click here.
Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
At Databricks, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone can excel. We take great care to ensure that our hiring practices are inclusive and meet equal employment opportunity standards. Individuals looking for employment at Databricks are considered without regard to age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other protected characteristics.
Compliance
If access to export-controlled technology or source code is required for performance of job duties, it is within Employer's discretion whether to apply for a U.S. government license for such positions, and Employer may decline to proceed with an applicant on this basis alone.
Editor’s Market Perspective (Our Custom Analysis)
Why This Position Matters
This opening may suit candidates who can demonstrate experience relevant to the employer's published requirements. Its strongest career signal is the scope of the work itself — particularly Design and implement core systems and APIs that power Databricks Model Serving, ensuring scalability, reliability, and operational excellence. — rather than a generic title alone.
Resume & Application Strategy
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