Staff Backend Software Engineer

Databricks; New York (NY); On-site; USD 190,000 - 261,250; Full time

Job summary

A leading data and AI infrastructure company in New York is seeking an experienced engineer to join their AI Platform team. The ideal candidate will have over 8 years in backend or infrastructure engineering, with strong skills in Scala, Go, or Python. Responsibilities include building LLM infrastructure and improving AI workload efficiency. This role offers a competitive salary ranging from $190,000 to $261,250, committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in backend or infrastructure engineering.
• Strong programming skills in Scala, Go, or Python.
• Experience with distributed systems, scalable APIs, or cloud-native infrastructure.
• Familiarity with service-oriented architecture, deployment pipelines, and system observability.
• Strong product and ownership mindset.

Responsibilities

• Build LLM infrastructure powering trillions of tokens per week.
• Improve reliability, latency, and efficiency of AI workloads.
• Collaborate to deliver seamless end-to-end experiences.
• Shape developer interactions with AI on Databricks.

Skills

Backend or infrastructure engineering

Programming in Scala, Go, or Python

Distributed systems knowledge

Scalable APIs

Cloud-native infrastructure

Service-oriented architecture

Deployment pipelines

System observability

Product ownership mindset

Job description

At Databricks, we are passionate about enabling data and AI teams to solve the world's toughest problems — from making the next mode of transportation a reality to accelerating the development of medical breakthroughs. We do this by building and running the world's best data and AI infrastructure platform so our customers can use deep data insights to improve their business. Founded by engineers — and customer obsessed — we leap at every opportunity to solve technical challenges, from designing next‑gen UI/UX for interfacing with data to scaling our services and infrastructure across millions of virtual machines. And we're only getting started.

As part of the AI Platform team, you’ll build the substrate that powers everything from data apps, AI agents, model training, model serving, and Vector Search. You’ll be joining a high-agency, high-visibility team operating at the frontier of AI infrastructure — with deep ties to research, product, and real-world enterprise use cases. Databricks Mosaic AI is one of our fastest-growing businesses, helping thousands of our customers democratize AI within their organizations. We’re building the infrastructure that powers the next generation of AI.

The Impact You Will Have

• Build LLM infrastructure powering trillions of tokens per week for customers through partner models (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini) and self‑hosted models (Qwen, GPT‑OSS, Llama)
• Improve reliability, latency, and efficiency of distributed AI workloads
• Collaborate with platform, infra, and ML teams to deliver seamless end‑to‑end experiences
• Shape how developers and data scientists build and interact with AI on Databricks

What We Look For

• 8+ years of experience in backend or infrastructure engineering
• Strong programming skills in Scala, Go, or Python
• Experience with distributed systems, scalable APIs, or cloud‑native infrastructure
• Familiarity with service‑oriented architecture, deployment pipelines, and system observability
• Strong product and ownership mindset — you care about building the right solution, not just any solution

Bonus Points For

• Experience with real‑time serving, ML infrastructure, or GPU orchestration
• Exposure to platforms like SageMaker, Vertex AI, or Azure ML
• Contributions to OSS projects like MLflow, PyTorch, Ray, vLLM, SGLang
• Built developer platforms or internal tools supporting AI workflows

Pay Range Transparency

$190,000—$261,250 USD

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

At Databricks, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone can excel. We take great care to ensure that our hiring practices are inclusive and meet equal employment opportunity standards. Individuals looking for employment at Databricks are considered without regard to age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio‑economic status, veteran status, and other protected characteristics.

Compliance

If access to export‑controlled technology or source code is required for performance of job duties, it is within Employer's discretion whether to apply for a U.S. government license for such positions, and Employer may decline to proceed with an applicant on this basis alone.