Principal Software Engineer, Architecture (AI/ML)

Do you ever wonder what happens inside the cloud?

DigitalOcean (NYSE: DOCN) simplifies cloud computing so builders can spend more time creating software that changes the world. With our mission-critical infrastructure and fully managed offerings, DigitalOcean enables startups and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to rapidly deploy and scale modern applications. As a remote-first organization, our employees, like our customers, are based around the world.

We want people who are passionate about staying on top of the latest cloud infrastructure and AI/ML trends, with an excellent aptitude for supporting internal employees and teams.

We are looking for a highly experienced, highly motivated Principal Software Engineer, Architecture (AI/ML) with a Computer Science, Engineering, or AI/ML background. You will be involved in the architecture, design, implementation, verification, and integration of the next generation of DigitalOcean Cloud Computing software with a strong emphasis on AI/ML-driven solutions.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Working at the forefront of cloud, distributed computing, and AI/ML technologies.
• Serving as the architect driving the technical strategy and direction for our large-scale cloud services, including machine learning model deployment and orchestration.
• Developing AI/ML models to optimize cloud infrastructure, improve system reliability, and enhance user experience.
• Building and refining machine learning pipelines and frameworks to support scalable AI/ML solutions.
• Owning the primary responsibility for establishing a pragmatic long-term technical direction for our software services, ensuring alignment with our customers, business goals, and internal teams.
• Leading a team of highly passionate technical leads to evolve our service architecture, with alignment across several product technical roadmaps.
• Leading by example through direct contribution and providing direction in establishing development and operational practices, with specific attention to AI/ML model lifecycle management.
• Serving as the technical lead on our most demanding, cross-functional projects.
• Actively mentoring individuals and the engineering community on advanced technical issues, including best practices in AI/ML.

What We’ll Expect From You:

Architect-level experience in the following domains:

• Proven expertise in large-scale cloud and AI/ML services, and a deep understanding of cloud computing’s potential in enhancing AI/ML applications.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and mentor large software and AI/ML teams.
• Experience with web and cloud-native services is a must-have, with experience deploying scalable AI/ML solutions in production.
• Adept at Systems Thinking with an ability to decompose complex problems into simple, straight-forward solutions, including AI/ML-specific challenges like model drift and data dependency management.
• Strong grasp of system interdependencies, limitations, and expertise in AI/ML optimization techniques for performance, scalability, and accuracy.

AI/ML Expertise:

• Hands-on experience in AI/ML frameworks and libraries, such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, or Scikit-Learn, and model-serving frameworks such as TensorFlow Serving or ONNX.
• Proven experience in developing and deploying models for performance-intensive applications at web-scale.
• Understanding of the MLOps lifecycle, including data engineering, model training, validation, deployment, and monitoring.
• Understanding of key HPC technologies including RDMA, InfiniBand/RoCE, GPUDirect and other storage technologies 
• Knowledge in performance, scalability, enterprise system architecture, and engineering best practices with an emphasis on the integration of AI/ML.
• Leverage knowledge of open-source, industry standards, and prior art in architecture decisions with AI/ML considerations.
• Balance technical leadership and savvy with strong business judgment to make the right decisions about technology, demonstrating simplicity and creativity.
• Master’s degree or higher preferred in Computer Science, AI/ML, or a related field.
• 15+ years professional experience in web-scale system software development.
• 5+ years experience demonstrating an established track record in Deep Learning and Machine Learning
• 3+ years recent experience as an ML engineer, data science engineer, or similar
• In-depth experience in two or more of the following areas: Cloud Computing, Storage, Networking, Platform-as-a-Service, Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Software-as-a-Service.
• Excellent communication skills at all