Principal Service Engineer, Adobe Firefly

Adobe; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 193,000 - 363,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in digital experiences seeks a Principal Service Engineer for their Generative AI Services team. This role involves leading engineers to build high-performance AI systems, designing integrations for Adobe's flagship products, and fostering a culture of innovation and excellence.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience building and operating production-scale systems.
• 3+ years of experience leading large-scale, GPU-intensive GenAI workloads.
• Exceptional communication and leadership skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead development and scaling of core GenAI services and APIs.
• Design and architect infrastructure for enterprise-scale model customization.
• Guide engineers through architecture, design, implementation, and best practices.

Skills

GPU resource management

MLOps

Kubernetes

model serving

orchestration

Education

MS or PhD in Computer Science

Job description

Our Company

Changing the world through digital experiences is what Adobe’s all about. We give everyone—from emerging artists to global brands—everything they need to design and deliver exceptional digital experiences! We’re passionate about empowering people to create beautiful and powerful images, videos, and apps, and transform how companies interact with customers across every screen.

We’re on a mission to hire the very best and are committed to creating exceptional employee experiences where everyone is respected and has access to equal opportunity. We realize that new ideas can come from everywhere in the organization, and we know the next big idea could be yours!

Adobe Firefly’s Generative AI Services team is seeking a Principal Service Engineer to serve as the technical lead for our GenAI Services domain. In this high-impact role, you will lead a team of talented engineers in building scalable, high-performance generative AI systems—powering features across Adobe products such as Firefly, Photoshop, Illustrator, Express, Stock, Premiere, and our suite of GenAI Enterprise solutions.

You will design and develop APIs and systems that integrate both Adobe’s proprietary and third-party generative models. As a hands-on technical leader, you will champion technical excellence and operational rigor while productizing and scaling a rapidly growing portfolio of GenAI services. You will address Adobe’s most complex engineering challenges, define technical direction, and mentor a growing organization of ML and services engineers.

Job Responsibilities

• Lead the development and scaling of core GenAI services and APIs that integrate diverse generative models into Adobe’s flagship products.
• Design and architect inference infrastructure for enterprise-scale model customization, serving, and ecosystem integration.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership, guiding engineers through architecture, design, implementation, and best practices.
• Evaluate and incorporate emerging MLOps technologies to improve engineering velocity, scalability, and performance.
• Drive cross-functional alignment by partnering with Product Managers, TPMs, and engineering leaders to define and deliver the roadmap.
• Lead design reviews and establish technical standards to ensure high reliability, maintainability, and scalability across systems.
• Design and lead the development of DevOps processes and tooling necessary for scaling infrastructure and services.
• Foster a culture of innovation, technical excellence, and continuous improvement across the organization.

What You’ll Need to Succeed

• MS or PhD in Computer Science or a related field—or equivalent industry experience.
• 10+ years of experience building and operating production-scale systems.
• 3+ years of experience leading large-scale, GPU-intensive GenAI workloads (training, inference, and/or optimization).
• Proven track record of leading cross-functional teams on complex, high-stakes engineering initiatives.
• Exceptional communication and leadership skills, with a strong ability to drive alignment in matrixed environments.
• Deep experience in model serving, orchestration, and GPU resource management in large-scale deployments.
• Hands-on expertise with Kubernetes, distributed systems, and MLOps platforms.

Preferred Qualifications

• In-depth understanding of generative model architectures, including diffusion models, transformers, and GANs

#FireflyGenAI

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several U.S. geographic markets, and we pay differently based on those defined markets. The U.S. pay range for this position is $193,900 -- $362,400 annually. Pay within this range varies by work location and may also depend on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the job location during the hiring process.

At Adobe, for sales roles starting salaries are expressed as total target compensation (TTC = base + commission), and short-term incentives are in the form of sales commission plans. Non-sales roles starting salaries are expressed as base salary and short-term incentives are in the form of the Annual Incentive Plan (AIP).

In addition, certain roles may be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of a new hire equity award.

State-Specific Notices:

California:

Fair Chance Ordinances

Adobe will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and “fair chance” ordinances.

Colorado:

Application Window Notice

If this role is open to hiring in Colorado (as listed on the job posting), the application window will remain open until at least the date and time stated above in Pacific Time, in compliance with Colorado pay transparency regulations. If this role does not have Colorado listed as a hiring location, no specific application window applies, and the posting may close at any time based on hiring needs.

Massachusetts:

Massachusetts Legal Notice

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Adobe is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on gender, race or color, ethnicity or national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other applicable characteristics protected by law. Learn more.

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