Software Engineering Director - Inference Platform

SambaNovaSystems; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 245,000 - 325,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits (premium covered)

Headspace

Gympass+ membership

Job summary

SambaNova Systems is seeking an Engineering Director for the SambaStack team. You will lead a high-performing engineering group, drive architectural initiatives, and contribute technically on critical platform work across AI inference and enterprise-grade infrastructure.

You will hire, mentor, and align teams with product goals, ML, QA, and DevOps. This role blends leadership with hands-on engineering across backend systems at scale in cloud and on‑prem environments.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of software engineering experience with leadership experience.
• Hands-on contributor with strong backend skills and architectural capabilities.
• Experience with AI inference serving and production-scale workloads.
• Proven ability to drive engineering excellence and communicate with senior leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead, grow, and inspire a software team with a focus on technical excellence.
• Own hiring for the team and build a diverse, high-performing engineering organization.
• Guide engineers through regular feedback and clear growth plans.
• Set goals, track progress, and remove blockers to maintain execution.
• Collaborate with Product, ML, QA, and DevOps leadership to align priorities.

Skills

Python

Go

Rust

AI inference

Leadership

Communication

Engineering management

Tools

Kubernetes

Helm Charts

Job description

The era of pervasive AI has arrived. In this era, organizations will use generative AI to unlock hidden value in their data, accelerate processes, reduce costs, drive efficiency and innovation to fundamentally transform their businesses and operations at scale.

SambaNova Suite™ is the first full-stack, generative AI platform, from chip to model, optimized for enterprise and government organizations. Powered by the intelligent SN40L chip, the SambaNova Suite is a fully integrated platform, delivered on-premises or in the cloud, combined with state-of-the-art open-source models that can be easily and securely fine-tuned using customer data for greater accuracy. Once adapted with customer data, customers retain model ownership in perpetuity, so they can turn generative AI into one of their most valuable assets.

About the Role

We help enterprises and service providers host their own AI inference platforms, powered by our state-of-the-art RDU (Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit) hardware architecture. Our cloud-agnostic, enterprise-grade inference serving platform enables seamless deployment, management, and scaling of foundation model workloads at production scale.

As an Engineering Director on the SambaStack team, you will lead a high-performing team of engineers while remaining a hands‑on technical contributor. You will be responsible for the growth and effectiveness of your team, the technical quality of their output, and driving key engineering initiatives while continuing to contribute directly on the platform's most important challenges.

This is a high-impact, high-visibility role combining:

• People leadership and team development
• AI infrastructure
• Enterprise software
• Systems architecture and design

Responsibilities

People & Team Leadership

• Lead, grow, and inspire a software team, fostering a culture of technical excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement
• Own hiring for your team: define roles, assess candidates, and build a diverse, high-performing engineering organization
• Drive the career development of your engineers through regular 1:1s, meaningful feedback, and clear growth plans
• Set clear goals and expectations, track team progress, and remove blockers to keep the team executing effectively
• Partner with Product, ML, QA, and DevOps leadership to align team priorities with broader organizational objectives

Technical Contribution

• Contribute directly as a software engineer: designing systems, writing code, and leading implementation on critical platform initiatives
• Participate in and lead design reviews, providing authoritative technical guidance on major features and cross-cutting changes
• Establish and uphold engineering standards, best practices, and coding quality across the team
• Proactively identify and drive the resolution of systemic risks: performance bottlenecks, reliability gaps, and scaling constraints
• Stay current on emerging technologies and AI inference trends to inform the team's technical direction

Required Qualifications

• 12+ years of software engineering experience, including 2+ years leading and managing engineering teams
• Demonstrated ability to manage, develop, and hire strong engineers while remaining a hands‑on technical contributor
• Strong technical depth in backend systems built with Python, Go, or Rust
• Experience with AI inference serving, orchestration, and the infrastructure challenges of LLM workloads at production scale
• Proven ability to drive engineering excellence across an engineering team
• Excellent communication skills: able to work effectively with engineers, cross‑functional partners, and senior leadership
• Experience running iterative engineering processes in a fast‑paced environment

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Kubernetes ecosystem tooling, including Operators and Helm Charts
• Background in ML application optimization and productionization
• Experience building or managing teams that deliver cloud‑native platforms for enterprise customers
• Familiarity with AI coding assistants and the developer tooling ecosystem
• Experience at a high‑growth AI infrastructure company

Base Salary Range: $245,000 — $325,000 USD

Benefits Summary for US-Based, Full-Time Employment Positions

• We cover 95% premium coverage for employee medical insurance, and 77% premium coverage for dependents and offer a Health Savings Account (HSA) with employer contribution.
• We also offer Dental, Vision, Short/Long term Disability, Basic Life, Voluntary Life, and AD&D insurance plans in addition to Flexible Spending Account (FSA) options like Health Care, Limited Purpose, and Dependent Care.
• Our library of well‑being benefits available to you and your dependents includes a full subscription to Headspace, Gympass+ membership with access to physical gyms, One Medical membership, counseling services with an Employee Assistance Program, and much more.

SambaNova Systems is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard basis of age (40 and over), color, disability, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, national origin/ancestry, race, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding), sexual orientation, and any other applicable status protected by federal, state, or local laws.