Senior Machine Learning Systems Engineer

Atlassian; Auckland; Hybrid; NZD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health and wellbeing resources

Volunteer days

Job summary

Atlassian is seeking a Senior Machine Learning System Engineer to build the core ML infrastructure across its AI & ML Platform. You will collaborate with Jira and Confluence to design, train, evaluate, and deploy ML models and pipelines for scalable, reliable AI features.

You will mentor junior engineers and drive end‑to‑end ML workflows, from data ingestion to model serving. The role supports Atlassian's flexible work model and international hiring.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in building Machine Learning and AI infra/Platform/Systems.
• Comprehensive ML lifecycle expertise: Developing, deploying, and maintaining end‑to‑end ML systems.
• Large‑scale system design: Designing scalable, fault‑tolerant distributed ML systems.
• Proficiency with Python and ML frameworks like PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX; bonus with Go/Java/Scala.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with product teams to build ML solutions for Jira and Confluence.
• Curate ML datasets and fine‑tune LLMs; access proprietary LLMs as needed.
• Lead projects from technical design to launch and mentor teammates.
• Deliver code reviews, documentation, and bug fixes within a strong engineering culture.
• Partner across teams to drive company‑wide initiatives.

Skills

ML infra

ML lifecycle

Large-scale design

Python

PyTorch

TensorFlow

JAX

MLOps

Tools

Go

Java

Scala

Job description

About Atlassian

Atlassian's mission, "to unleash the potential of every team," serves as the foundation of everything we do. We have developed well-known collaborative products, such as Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket, that fit into the fabric of teamwork across different types of teams and the processes to help every team succeed.

Overview

Atlassian's mission, "to unleash the potential of every team," serves as the foundation of everything we do. We have developed well-known collaborative products, such as Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket, that fit into the fabric of teamwork across different types of teams and the processes to help every team succeed.

Atlassian helps teams everywhere change the world. Our products power revolutions across many industries, enabling teams to collaborate effectively and achieve their highest potential. Take, for example, NASA launching the Rover on Mars or Cochlear gifting those born deaf with the ability to hear. Your work directly impacts the products they use to promote humanity.

In this role, you will be joining the Central AI Org and more specifically the AI & ML Platform team.

About Central AI Org

Our organization is dedicated to driving AI innovation across all Atlassian products and platforms. We aim to deliver seamless AI experiences while establishing a robust Atlassian AI infrastructure for the future. Our purpose is to:

• Develop horizontal AI capabilities and infrastructure that can be leveraged across all products.
• Establish a centralized Search, Q&A, and Conversational AI system that integrates seamlessly with all Atlassian products.
• Explore the integration of Atlassian products with AI solutions beyond the Atlassian ecosystem.

About AI & ML Platform Team

Our team’s goal is to build the foundations to democratize AI and Machine Learning for Atlassian’s teams, customers, and ecosystem. We aim to build productive and reliable tools that empower Atlassian teams to harness the power of AI. These tools will facilitate the development, deployment, measurement, and operation of AI & ML experiences.

Our tools are designed to integrate seamlessly with other Atlassian platforms, including the Atlassian Data Platform. This integration enables teams to efficiently and swiftly incorporate AI and ML capabilities into their workflows while strictly adhering to all security and data usage policies. Our primary goal is to deliver a smooth and hassle‑free experience for Atlassian users, empowering them to harness the potential of AI and ML without any complications.

Working at Atlassian

Atlassians can choose where they work – whether in an office, from home, or a combination of the two. That way, Atlassians have more control over supporting their family, personal goals, and other priorities. We can hire people in any country where we have a legal entity.

Responsibilities

About This Role

As a Senior Machine Learning System Engineer on the AI & ML Platform team, you will play a pivotal role in developing and refining the core infrastructure that empowers all Atlassian software engineers, ML engineers, and data scientists to create, train, evaluate, deploy, and manage Machine Learning models and pipelines.

You will collaborate closely with product teams, such as Jira and Confluence, to solve their specific challenges in building ML solutions. This may involve curating high‑quality ML datasets, fine‑tuning open‑sourced Large Language Models (LLMs), or accessing proprietary LLMs. Your expertise in both ML and software development will be instrumental in overcoming challenging problems and navigating complex infrastructure and architectural issues.

This position offers you the chance to lead projects from the technical design phase all the way to launch. You will partner with various teams and internal stakeholders to achieve impactful results.

In This Role, You'll Get The Chance To

• Collaborate with your teammates to solve complex problems, from technical design to launch.
• Deliver cutting‑edge solutions that are used by other Atlassian teams and products to build AI features that reach millions of customers.
• Deliver code reviews, documentation & bug fixes within a strong engineering culture.
• Partner across engineering teams to take on company‑wide initiatives spanning multiple projects.
• Mentor junior members of the team.

Qualifications

At Atlassian, we strive to design equitable, explainable, and competitive compensation programs. We follow consistent hiring practices and account for each candidate's skills, knowledge, and experience when setting base pay within the range.

This role may also be eligible for benefits, bonuses, commissions, and equity.

• 5+ years of experience in building Machine Learning and AI infra/Platform/Systems
• Comprehensive ML lifecycle expertise: Proven experience developing, deploying, and maintaining end‑to‑end ML systems, from data engineering to model serving and monitoring.
• Large‑scale system design: Extensive experience designing and building scalable, fault‑tolerant, and high‑performance distributed systems for machine learning.
• Proficiency with frameworks and languages: Good proficiency in Python and familiarity with ML frameworks like PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX. Bonus if you have worked with other languages like Go, Java, or Scala.
• MLOps and automation: Some experience implementing MLOps, CI/CD pipelines, and automation for continuous training, deployment, and monitoring of ML models.

It would be great, but not required if you have

• Cloud infrastructure: Hands‑on expertise with major cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure, including their specific AI/ML services and compute resources like GPUs.
• Big data processing: Experience with distributed computing frameworks for large‑scale data processing, such as Spark, Ray, or Dask.
• Performance optimization: A demonstrated ability to diagnose and solve complex performance and optimization problems for ML models and infrastructure.
• Generative AI systems: Experience with GenAI frameworks and tools, including developing and fine‑tuning large language models (LLMs) and building retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) systems.

Benefits & Perks

Atlassian offers a wide range of perks and benefits designed to support you, your family and to help you engage with your local community. Our offerings include health and wellbeing resources, paid volunteer days, and so much more. To learn more, visit go.atlassian.com/perksandbenefits.

About Atlassian

At Atlassian, we're motivated by a common goal: to unleash the potential of every team. Our software products help teams all over the planet and our solutions are designed for all types of work. Team collaboration through our tools makes what may be impossible alone, possible together.

We believe that the unique contributions of all Atlassians create our success. To ensure that our products and culture continue to incorporate everyone's perspectives and experience, we never discriminate based on race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or marital, veteran, or disability status. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

To provide you the best experience, we can support with accommodations or adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process. Simply inform our Recruitment team during your conversation with them.

To learn more about our culture and hiring process, visit go.atlassian.com/crh.

In line with local law, identity verification (which may include use of biometric data) is a condition of employment with Atlassian for employment fraud purposes.