Senior Distributed ML Engineer

LawZero; Montreal (administrative region); On-site; CAD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Vacation 20 days

Employer retirement contribution 4%

Additional 8% retirement/bonuses

Collaborative expert team

Office in Little Italy, Mile-Ex

Job summary

LawZero, based in Montreal, seeks a senior distributed ML research developer to advance a novel AI safety agenda. You will collaborate with ML research scientists to tackle training and inference challenges using very large models within distributed environments.

You will design and optimize distributed ML pipelines, profile code, and develop tools to streamline large-scale research workflows. A strong background in distributed systems and cloud/DL tooling is essential.

Qualifications

• Degree in a relevant computer science field (e.g., computer science, computer engineering, software engineering) is required.
• An advanced degree (master's or PhD) related to machine learning or distributed ML systems is preferred but not required if the candidate demonstrates exceptional abilities and experience.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with researchers to accelerate research, model training and inference, and facilitate the use of large-scale models in distributed computing environments.
• Investigate performance bottlenecks, profile research experiment code, debug reported issues, and optimize the utilization of computing resources.
• Develop tools and libraries to simplify and orchestrate the use of distributed computing resources for research experiments.
• Establish, document, and maintain best practices for large-scale, distributed ML model development workflows.

Skills

Distributed ML systems

Research collaboration

Model training & inference

Education

Bachelor's in CS/EE

Advanced degree in ML

Tools

Megatron

DeepSpeed

HuggingFace Accelerate

FSDP

vLLM

verl

Job description

We are seeking a senior distributed machine learning (ML) research developer to join our team working on a novel AI safety agenda. In this role, you will work closely with ML research scientists to solve difficult training and inference problems using very large models.

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate with researchers to accelerate research, model training and inference, and facilitate the use of large-scale models in distributed computing environments.
• Investigate performance bottlenecks, profile research experiment code, debug reported issues, and optimize the utilization of computing resources.
• Develop tools and libraries to simplify and orchestrate the use of distributed computing resources for research experiments.
• Establish, document, and maintain best practices for large-scale, distributed ML model development workflows.

Skills And Qualifications

• A degree in a relevant computer science field (e.g., computer science, computer engineering, software engineering) is required. An advanced degree (master's or PhD) related to machine learning or distributed ML systems is preferred but not required if the candidate demonstrates exceptional abilities and experience.
• 3+ years of experience in designing and implementing distributed ML training frameworks, with recent experience using e.g. Megatron, DeepSpeed, HuggingFace Accelerate, FSDP, vLLM, and/or verl.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams, document best practices, and stay updated with the latest advancements in ML and software development.
• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure) and workload managers (e.g., Ray, SLURM).
• Experience with GPU profiling tools (e.g. PyTorch profiler, PyProf, NVIDIA Nsight).
• Familiarity with containerization tools (e.g., gRPC, Docker, Kubernetes).
• Familiarity with data infrastructures and platforms (e.g., vector databases).
• A track record of contributing to high-quality research projects in deep learning.

The title of Engineer is used for reference purposes and may or may not be the official title of the applicant based on jurisdiction.

What we offer

• The opportunity to contribute to a unique mission with a major impact.
• Comprehensive health benefits (including mental health and wellness management account)
• 20 days of vacation per year upon start
• Employer contribution of 4% to your retirement savings, with no required employee matching
• Additional compensation totaling 8% of your salary to apply towards additional retirement savings or bonuses (independent of group and individual performance)
• A team of passionate world-class experts in their field
• A collaborative and inclusive work environment in our vibrant office space in the heart of Little Italy, in the trendy Mile-Ex district, close to public transportation

About LawZero

LawZero is a non-profit organization committed to advancing research and creating technical solutions that enable safe-by-design AI systems. Its scientific direction is based on new research and methods proposed by Professor Yoshua Bengio, the most cited AI researcher in the world. Based in Montreal, LawZero's research aims to build non-agentic AI that learns primarily to understand the world rather than to act in it, giving truthful answers to questions based on transparent and externalized probabilistic reasoning. Such AI systems could be used to accelerate scientific discovery, to provide oversight for agentic AI systems, and to advance the understanding of AI risks and how to avoid them. LawZero believes that AI should be cultivated as a global public good—developed and used safely towards human flourishing. For more information, visit www.lawzero.org

You belong here

At LawZero, diversity is important to us. We value a work environment that is fair, open and respectful of differences. We welcome applications from highly qualified individuals interested in working towards our mission in a respectful, inclusive and collaborative setting.

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