Staff Software Engineer, Ray Core

We Love AI Jobs; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 240,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

Anyscale is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for Ray Core in San Francisco (Hybrid). You’ll own a major Ray Core area, set roadmap, and drive complex distributed-systems projects through production while remaining hands-on.

You will mentor engineers, shape architecture, and collaborate across teams. Ideal candidates have 6+ years, strong C++, Rust, or Java, and deep distributed-systems experience.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of software engineering experience with technical ownership.
• Experience leading large end-to-end projects across multiple engineers.
• Proven ability to drive multi-quarter, multi-team initiatives.
• Deep experience with distributed systems and computer architecture.
• Strong systems programming in C++, Rust, or Java.
• Knowledge of multithreading, concurrency, and networking.
• Experience building foundational infra (databases, schedulers, etc.).
• Mentored engineers and raised the technical bar.

Responsibilities

• Define the roadmap and technical direction for a major Ray Core area.
• Lead multi-engineer projects from problem definition to production outcomes.
• Design, implement distributed primitives while mentoring engineers.

Skills

C++

Rust

Java

Ray

distributed systems

concurrency

networking

storage systems

Job description

# Staff Software Engineer, Ray CoreAnyscaleSan Francisco (Hybrid)Full-time$240,000 – $270,000 / yearAI tools:RayUpload your resume once and Scout applies for youApply with ScoutShare this job:LinkedInXSave imageYou’ll own a major technical area of Ray Core, setting its roadmap and driving complex distributed-systems projects through production. The role remains hands-on in implementation and debugging while shaping architecture, leading work across teams, and mentoring engineers.* Permanent* Hybrid* 6+ years### Skills and expertiseC++RustJavaRaydistributed systemsconcurrencynetworkingstorage systems### Key responsibilities* Define the roadmap and technical direction for a major Ray Core area.* Lead complex, multi-engineer projects from problem definition through production outcomes.* Design and implement distributed-systems primitives while mentoring engineers.## How this job comparesCompared with 343 open staff engineering jobs on October 10, 2026.Pay: This job pays $240K to $270K a year. The 219 open staff engineering jobs that publish US pay start at $206K on average, so this job starts about 16% higher.Similar open jobs: We Love AI Jobs lists 343 open staff engineering jobs at 113 companies.Remote work: This job is hybrid. 47 of the 343 staff engineering jobs (14%) are remote.AI in this role: Medium. The role uses AI tools and works with AI systems as a regular part of the job. The role builds Ray Core infrastructure used to run distributed AI workloads. Its day-to-day focus is foundational distributed systems rather than model development.## Full descriptionAbout Anyscale:At Anyscale, we're on a mission to democratize distributed computing and make it accessible to software developers of all skill levels. We’re commercializing Ray, a popular open-source project that's creating an ecosystem of libraries for scalable machine learning. Companies like OpenAI, Uber, Spotify, Instacart, Cruise, and many more, have Ray in their tech stacks to accelerate the progress of AI applications out into the real world.With Anyscale, we’re building the best place to run Ray, so that any developer or data scientist can scale an ML application from their laptop to the cluster without needing to be a distributed systems expert.Proud to be backed by Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, and Addition with $250+ million raised to date.What you'll do• Own a major technical area of Ray Core end to end, defining the roadmap, identifying the most important technical problems, and driving execution through production.• Lead large, technically complex projects spanning multiple engineers, teams, and/or organizations.• Set technical direction and make architectural decisions for distributed computing infrastructure used by demanding production workloads.• Design, build, and evolve core distributed-systems primitives rather than simply integrating existing platforms or frameworks.• Work on problems involving areas such as distributed execution, scheduling, resource management, fault tolerance, concurrency, networking, storage, or system performance.• Stay hands-on with implementation and debugging in a systems-oriented codebase, while raising the technical bar for the engineers around you.• Help shape the longer-term architecture and evolution of Ray Core as our workloads and scale continue to grow.What we're looking for• 6+ years of software engineering experience, with a track record of increasing technical ownership.• Experience leading substantial projects end to end, including defining the problem, creating a roadmap, making architectural decisions, driving implementation, and owning the outcome in production.• Experience leading projects that are larger than a single-engineer effort, typically spanning multiple engineers and lasting multiple quarters.• Deep experience with distributed systems and computer systems.• Strong systems programming experience in languages such as C++, Rust, Java, or similar lower-level languages.• Strong understanding of systems concepts such as multithreading/concurrency, distributed coordination, resource management, fault tolerance, performance, or networking.• Experience building foundational systems such as databases, streaming systems, distributed runtimes, operating systems, schedulers, storage systems, Spark, Kafka, or similar infrastructure is highly relevant.• A track record of mentoring engineers and raising the technical bar of the teams around you.• Nice to have: Contributions to open-source infrastructure projects.Why Anyscale• We're on a mission to make scalable computing effortless. Ray is the AI Compute Engine at the center of some of the world's most powerful AI platforms• Our tech is in production at companies like OpenAI, Uber, Spotify, Instacart, and Cruise• We're backed by Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, and Addition, with $250M+ raised to date• Recent partnerships with Azure, CoreWeave, and Google Cloud are putting AI-native compute directly into enterprise environments• Competitive salary and equity, plus health/dental/vision coverage (many plans up to 99% employer-covered)• We offer flexible time off, paid parental leave, and mental health supportAnyscale Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Candidates are evaluated without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, disability, national origin, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal or state law.