Staff Machine Learning Engineer

ACM CAIS 2026; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 285,000; Full time

Job summary

Databricks’ Applied AI team is seeking multiple GenAI Engineers from junior to senior levels to advance GenAI-powered products such as Databricks Assistant and AI/BI Genie. You will shape the direction of AI capabilities and deploy state-of-the-art models that impact our products and services.

In this role you will develop data collection and fine-tuning strategies, design ML pipelines, and collaborate with researchers, engineers, and product teams to deliver scalable AI solutions.

Qualifications

• 2-8 years of ML engineering experience in high-velocity environments.
• Proven experience with language modeling technologies and LLMs.
• Proficiency in Python, TensorFlow or PyTorch, and scalable ML architectures.
• Experience end-to-end model development from research to deployment.

Responsibilities

• Shape the direction of applied AI areas and intelligence features in products.
• Develop data collection, fine-tuning, and LLM technologies for tasks and domains.
• Design and implement ML pipelines for data preprocessing, model training, and evaluation.
• Collaborate with AI researchers, ML engineers and product teams to deliver impactful AI solutions.
• Build scalable backend systems to support GenAI products and ensure reliable model performance.

Skills

Python

TensorFlow

PyTorch

LLM/GenAI

Code reviews

Tools

ML pipelines

Job description

P-1504

The Applied AI team at Databricks sits at the forefront of advancing GenAI-powered products. Over the past years, we’ve launched Databricks Assistant, AI/BI Genie, and Agent Bricks working with product teams, and made significant strides in LLM quality for these products. These products are used by 100s of thousands of Databricks users every day. We are tackling challenging problems like code suggestion, error detection and correction, text-to-sql generation, automatic pipeline generation, knowledge QA and many others.

As our GenAI products continue to evolve, we are seeking multiple GenAI Engineers from junior levels to more senior levels to drive the next phase of development. In 2025, we will focus on enhancing LLM quality, expanding GenAI capabilities across Databricks products, and strengthening our platform architecture to enable seamless AI interactions at scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Shape the direction of our applied AI areas and intelligence features in our products. Drive the development and deployment of state-of-the-art AI models and systems that directly impact the capabilities and performance of Databricks' products and services (e.g., Databricks Assistant and AI/BI Genie).
• Develop novel data collection, fine-tuning, and LLM technologies that achieve optimal performance on specific tasks and domains.
• Design and implement ML pipelines for data preprocessing, feature engineering, model training, hyperparameter tuning, and model evaluation, enabling rapid experimentation and iteration.
• Work closely with cross-functional teams, including AI researchers, ML engineers, and product teams, to deliver impactful AI solutions that enhance user productivity and satisfaction.
• Build scalable, reusable backend systems to support GenAI products across the company. Develop robust logging, telemetry, and evaluation harnesses to ensure reliable model performance.

What We’re Looking For

• 2-8 years of machine learning engineering experience in high-velocity, high-growth companies. Alternatively, a strong background in relevant ML research in academia will be considered as an equivalent qualification.
• Strong track record of working with language modeling technologies. This could include the following: Developing generative and embedding techniques, modern model architectures, fine tuning / pre-training datasets, and evaluation benchmarks.
• Proficiency in Python, TensorFlow/PyTorch, and scalable ML architectures.
• Ability to drive end-to-end model development, from research and prototyping to deployment and monitoring.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a passion for improving AI-driven user experiences.
• Strong coding and software engineering skills, and familiarity with software engineering principles around testing, code reviews and deployment.
• Experience with LLM fine-tuning, prompt engineering, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is a bonus.

Why Join Us?

At Databricks, we are building state-of-the-art AI solutions that redefine how users interact with data and our products. You’ll have the opportunity to shape the future of AI-driven products at Databricks, work with cutting-edge models, and collaborate with a world-class team of AI and ML experts.

Please note we are open to employees working from our Mountain View, CA office for this position.

Pay Range Transparency

Databricks is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The pay range(s) for this role is listed below and represents the expected salary range for non-commissionable roles or on-target earnings for commissionable roles. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to job-related skills, depth of experience, relevant certifications and training, and specific work location. Based on the factors above, Databricks anticipates utilizing the full width of the range. The total compensation package for this position may also include eligibility for annual performance bonus, equity, and the benefits listed above. For more information regarding which range your location is in visit our page here.

Local Pay Range

$190,000—$285,000 USD

About Databricks

Databricks is the data and AI company. More than 10,000 organizations worldwide — including Comcast, Condé Nast, Grammarly, and over 50% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to unify and democratize data, analytics and AI. Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices around the globe and was founded by the original creators of Lakehouse, Apache Spark™, Delta Lake and MLflow. To learn more, follow Databricks on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Benefits

At Databricks, we strive to provide comprehensive benefits and perks that meet the needs of all of our employees. For specific details on the benefits offered in your region click here.

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.