Software Engineer, Data Infrastructure

AI Chopping Block, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 300,000 - 400,000; Full time

Job summary

Thinking Machines in San Francisco, CA, is hiring an engineer to architect and scale core data infrastructure for distributed training and multimodal data catalogs. You’ll work with researchers to accelerate experiments and build from the ground up using Spark, Kafka, Beam, Ray, and Delta Lake.

Responsibilities include data ingestion, quality checks, deduplication, and search, plus end-to-end lifecycle traceability and robust monitoring to improve platform reliability.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in CS/engineering or related field.
• Proficiency in Python or Rust and at least one backend framework.
• Experience with distributed compute frameworks such as Spark or Ray.
• Strong understanding of cloud data lake architectures and pipelines.
• Ability to own projects end-to-end with cross-functional partners.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate scalable infrastructure for LLM research.
• Develop high-throughput data ingestion, processing, and transformation pipelines.
• Create traceability and quality controls across the data lifecycle.
• Implement monitoring and alerting to ensure reliability and performance.
• Collaborate with researchers to speed up experiments and feature development.

Skills

Python

Rust

Apache Spark

Ray

Cloud infrastructure

Data lake architectures

Batch and streaming pipelines

End-to-end ownership

Cross-functional collaboration

initiative to ship

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Kafka

dbt

Terraform

Airflow

Job description

About Thinking Machines

The mission of Thinking Machines is to build AI that extends human will and judgment. We are training frontier models with Inkling, developing Tinker to let people make models their own, and crafting interfaces that broaden human-AI communication. We believe the future worth building is human, and we're hiring people who want to build it.

About the Role

We're looking for an engineer to join us and contribute to data infrastructure. You'll join a small, high-impact team responsible for architecting and scaling the core infrastructure behind distributed training pipelines, multimodal data catalogs, and intelligent processing systems that operate over petabytes of data.

Infrastructure is critical to us: it's the bedrock that enables every breakthrough. You'll work directly with researchers to accelerate experiments, develop new datasets, improve infrastructure efficiency, and enable key insights across our data assets.

If you're excited by distributed systems, large-scale data mining, open-source tools like Spark, Kafka, Beam, Ray, and Delta Lake, and enjoy building from the ground up, we'd love to hear from you.

What You'll Do

• Design, build, and operate scalable, fault-tolerant infrastructure for LLM Research: distributed compute, data orchestration, and storage across modalities.

• Develop high-throughput systems for data ingestion, processing, and transformation - including training data catalogs, deduplication, quality checks, and search.

• Build systems for traceability, reproducibility, and robust quality control at every stage of the data lifecycle.

• Implement and maintain monitoring and alerting to support platform reliability and performance.

• Collaborate with research teams to unlock new features, improve data quality, and accelerate training cycles.

Skills and Qualifications

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in computer science, engineering, or similar.

• Proficiency in at least one backend language (we use Python or Rust).

• Are fluent in distributed compute frameworks such as Apache Spark or Ray.

• Are deeply familiar with cloud infrastructure, data lake architectures, and batch and streaming pipelines.

• Comfort operating across the stack and owning projects end-to-end.

• Thrive in a highly collaborative environment involving many, different cross-functional partners and subject matter experts.

• A bias for action with a mindset to take initiative to work across different stacks and different teams where you spot the opportunity to make sure something ships.

Preferred qualifications

• Have hands-on experience with Kafka, dbt, Terraform, and Airflow.

• Have experience building a web crawler.

• Have extensive experience understanding and scaling deduplication, data mining, and search.

• Have strong knowledge of file formats and storage systems (e.g., Parquet, Delta Lake, etc.) and how they impact performance and scalability.

• Are proactive about documentation, testing, and empowering your teammates with good tooling.

Logistics

• Location: This role is based in San Francisco, California.

• Compensation: Depending on background, skills and experience, the expected annual salary range for this position is $300,000 - $400,000 USD.

• Visa sponsorship: We sponsor visas. While we can't guarantee success for every candidate or role, if you're the right fit, we're committed to working through the visa process together.

• Benefits: Thinking Machines offers generous health, dental, and vision benefits, unlimited PTO, paid parental leave, and relocation support as needed.