Staff II Software Engineer AI/ML Ops

BlackLine Systems, Inc.; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 245,000 - 307,000; Full time

Job summary

BlackLine Systems, Inc. is seeking a Lead Data Engineer to design, build, and optimize data pipelines powering AI-driven accounting agents. Lead scalable data infra and collaborate across teams to advance ML/AI deployments.

You will guide PySpark ETL, API integrations with FiveTran and Plaid, and establish robust data governance while driving performance at scale in a production environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's in CS/ML or related field.
• Strong programming in Python/Scala.
• Experience deploying ML/LLM pipelines in production.

Responsibilities

• Lead PySpark ETL development with high data quality.
• Manage integrations to client data sources via APIs and connectors.
• Ensure pipeline reliability, testing, and data accuracy.
• Optimize for scale with CDC and indexing strategies.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to align data requirements.

Skills

PySpark ETL

API integrations

Leadership

ML/AI systems

Observability

Cloud & CI/CD

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science / ML / Data Science

Tools

FiveTran

Plaid

Internal connectors

Job description

Make Your Mark: We’re looking for a Lead Data Engineer to design, build, and optimize data pipelines that power our next-generation AI-driven accounting agents. You’ll lead the development of scalable, high-performance data infrastructure while collaborating closely across teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead data pipeline development: Build and maintain PySpark ETL pipelines with high data quality and performance
• Manage integrations: Establish robust connections to client data sources via APIs and tools like FiveTran, Plaid, and BlackLine’s own internal connector ecosystem
• Ensure reliability: Monitor pipeline performance, automate testing, and validate data accuracy
• Optimize for scale: Implement performance improvements (e.g., CDC mechanisms, indexing strategies) for large-scale datasets
• Collaborate & innovate: Work with business stakeholders to refine data requirements and integrate cutting-edge AI and big data technologies

You’ll Get To

Leadership and Strategy Partner with data science, security, and product teams to set evaluation and governance standards (Guardrails, Bias, Drift, Latency SLAs). Mentor senior engineers and drive design reviews for ML pipelines, model registries, and agentic runtime environments. Lead incident response and reliability strategies for ML/AI systems. AI System Deployment and Integration: Collaborate with development teams to integrate AI solutions into existing workflows and applications. Ensure seamless integration with different platforms and technologies. Define and manage MCP Registry for agentic component onboarding, lifecycle versioning, and dependency governance. Build CI/CD pipelines automating LLM agent deployment, policy validation, and prompt evaluation of workflows. Develop and operationalize experimentation frameworks for agent evaluations, scenario regression, and performance analytics. Implement logging, metering, and auditing for agent behavior, function calls, and compliance alignment. Create scalable observability systems-tracking conversation outcomes, factual accuracy, latency, escalation patterns, and safety events. Architect end-to-end guardrails for AI agents including prompt injection protection, identity-aware routing, and tool usage authorization. Collaborate cross-functionally to standardize authentication, authorization, and session governance for multi-agent runtimes. Model Deployment and Integration: Architect and standardize model registries and feature stores to support version tracking, lineage, and reproducibility across environments.

Lead the deployment of machine learning models into production environments, ensuring scalability, reliability, and efficiency. Collaborate with software engineers to integrate machine learning models into existing applications and systems. Implement and maintain APIs for model inference. Infrastructure and Environment Management: Design and manage training infrastructure including distributed training orchestration, GPU/TPU resource allocation, and automatic scaling. Implement CI/CD for model workflows using pipelines integrated with model validation, bias checks, and rollback automation. Build standardized experimentation frameworks for reproducible training, tuning, and deployment cycles (MLflow, W&B, Kubeflow). Manage and optimize the infrastructure required for machine learning operations in cloud. Work closely with other teams to ensure the availability, security, and performance of machine learning systems. Monitoring and Maintenance: Implement robust monitoring solutions for deployed machine learning models to detect issues and ensure performance. Collaborate with data scientists and engineers to address and resolve model performance and data quality issues. Conduct regular system maintenance, updates, and optimizations to ensure optimal performance of machine learning solutions. Automation and Orchestration: Develop and maintain automation scripts and tools for managing machine learning workflows. Implement orchestration systems to streamline the end-to-end machine learning lifecycle, from data preparation to model deployment. Collaboration with Data Science Teams: Collaborate with data scientists to understand model requirements and constraints for deployment. Facilitate the transition of machine learning models from research to production, ensuring scalability and efficiency. Performance Optimization: Identify and implement optimizations to enhance the performance and efficiency of machine learning models in production. Conduct performance analysis and implement improvements based on resource utilization of metrics. Security and Compliance: Implement security measures to protect machine learning systems and data. Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards related to machine learning and data privacy. Integrate audit controls, metadata storage, and lineage tracking across ML and AI workflows. Ensure complete monitoring and feedback loops including event logs, evaluations, and automated retraining triggers. Enforce secure deployment patterns with Infrastructure-as-Code and cloud-native secrets management. Define SLAs, error budgets, and compliance reporting mechanisms for ML and AI systems.

What You’ll Bring

Knowledge: Typically possesses extensive practical experience with consistent, demonstrated success developing effective business solutions/applications for products or services that may effect broad areas of the org | Expert solution builder Competencies: Recognized expert within and outside of the organization Possesses industry expertise as an individual contributor to operations | Sets objectives and delivers results that have an impact within the department or division | Provides advice, counsel and thought leadership within the department | Influencer/architect/orchestrator High level strategic influence | Decisions impact business unit's or department's strategic direction | Anticipates emerging trends | Accountable to 3+ year horizon | Futurist mindset | Expert operator High level of unprecedented work or experience | High degree of autonomy and exercises independent discretion | Accountable for complex, highly strategic duties requiring functional expertise | Develops path through org's most ambiguous endeavors | Developer of innovation or adaptation

We’re Even More Excited If You Have

Education and Experience: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Data Science, or a related field. Technical Skills: Strong programming skills in languages such as Python, Java, or Scala. Expertise in ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn) and orchestration tools (Airflow, Kubeflow, Vertex AI, MLflow). Proven experience operating production pipelines for ML and LLM-based systems across cloud ecosystems (GCP, AWS, Azure). Deep familiarity with LangChain, LangGraph, ADK or similar agentic system runtime management. Strong competencies in CI/CD, IaC, and DevSecOps pipelines integrating testing, compliance, and deployment automation. Hands‑on with observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, Newrelic) for model and agent performance tracking. Understanding of governance frameworks for Responsible AI, auditability, and cost metering across training and inference workloads. Proficiency in containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes). Operations and Infrastructure: Proficient in scripting languages (e.g., Bash, python) for automation. Experience with workflow orchestration tools (e.g., Apache Airflow). Expertise in managing and optimizing cloud‑based infrastructure. Familiarity with DevOps practices and tools for automated deployment. Understanding of network configurations and security protocols. Problem‑solving and Critical Thinking: Ability to define problems, collect and analyze data, and propose innovative solutions. Strong critical thinking skills to evaluate models, identify limitations, and Adaptability and Learning Agility: Comfortable working in a fast‑paced, rapidly evolving environment. Proactive in staying up to date with the latest trends, techniques, and technologies in AI/data science Thrive at BlackLine Because You Are Joining: A technology‑based company with a sense of adventure and a vision for the future. Every door at BlackLine is open. Just bring your brains, your problem‑solving skills, and be part of a winning team at the world's most trusted name in Finance Automation! A culture that is kind, open, and accepting. It's a place where people can embrace what makes them unique, and the mix of cultural backgrounds and varying interests cultivates diverse thought and perspectives. A culture where BlackLiner's continued growth and learning is empowered. BlackLine offers a wide variety of professional development seminars and inclusive affinity groups to celebrate and support our diversity.

BlackLine is an equal opportunity employer.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity or expression, race, ethnicity, age, religious creed, national origin, physical or mental disability, ancestry, color, marital status, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking, medical condition, genetic information, or any other protected class or category recognized by applicable equal employment opportunity or other similar laws.

Candidates who live within a reasonable commute to one of our offices will work in the office at least 3 days a week.

Salary Range

$245,000.00–$307,000.00

Pay Transparency Statement

Placement within this range depends upon several factors, including the applicant's prior relevant job experience, skill set, and geographic location. In addition to base pay, BlackLine also offers short-term and long-term incentive programs, based on eligibility, along with a robust offering of benefit and wellness plans. We are committed to pay transparency and ensuring candidates have clear information about compensation expectations. For roles that include variable incentive components such as an Incentive Compensation Plan (ICP) or On-Target Earnings (OTE), the compensation structure may follow a split model – for example, a 50/50, 70/30, or 60/40 ratio between base salary and variable incentive.

Accommodations

BlackLine is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible experience for all candidates. If you require a reasonable accommodation that would better enable your success during the application or interview process, please complete this form.

Wondering what it’s like to work at BlackLine? Don’t take our word for it. We’ve been voted Best Place to Work by Inc. Magazine four years in a row. Built in LA ranks us in their top 100 Best Places to Work in LA. Reviewers on Glassdoor say we have “smart and kind people,” “phenomenal culture,” and “good work/life balance.”

At BlackLine, we follow a comprehensive recruitment process which is undertaken by our talent acquisition team. We conduct personal interviews of all potential job seekers and do not follow practice of making employment offers based solely on a candidate’s resume. We do not solicit any payment under the name of security deposit and/or visa/work-permit processing fee, etc., either refundable or non-refundable, at any stage of the recruitment process. Openings at BlackLine are listed on our career webpage in addition to being advertised in job portals. Job seekers are requested to be vigilant of any fraudulent or suspicious activities in protection of their interest. BlackLine shall not be held liable for any loss or damage, direct or indirect, incurred as a result of this act.