
ML Engineer, Backend
Prior Labs11 months ago
Berlin, Germany or New York, NY, USAMid Level
Responsibilities
- Own the model serving path end-to-end, including latency, throughput, batching, memory behavior, and cost per prediction.
- Design robust, scalable, secure backend systems and production-grade APIs for foundation model serving.
- Develop high-quality, maintainable code for core backend services.
- Design, deploy, and manage cloud infrastructure with a focus on reliability, monitoring, observability, and cost efficiency.
- Implement GDPR-compliant data storage, access control, usage tracking, quota management, and other security controls.
- Champion engineering standards for testing, CI/CD, documentation, and security.
- Collaborate directly with AI researchers to translate models into scalable production systems.
Requirements
- At least 3 years of professional experience in machine learning and backend engineering, including managing production infrastructure.
- Proven experience deploying and operating machine learning models in production and understanding their behavior under real traffic.
- Strong hands-on experience designing and building production-grade APIs and backend services.
- Significant experience building and operating services on cloud platforms, preferably GCP.
- Strong hands-on experience with Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform.
- Significant experience with containerization and orchestration technologies including Docker and Kubernetes.
- Proficiency in Python.
- Preferred experience with ML infrastructure such as MLOps, model serving frameworks, feature stores, and data pipelines.
- Preferred experience with inference optimization techniques including quantization, compilation, dynamic batching, caching strategies, and distributed computing.
- Experience with PyTorch, FastAPI, and relevant open-source contributions is preferred.
Benefits
- Teams are based in Berlin, Freiburg, and New York, with exceptional-case remote work generally involving frequent travel to an office.
- The company holds regular all-company offsites.
- The company provides equal opportunities and welcomes applicants from diverse backgrounds and identities.
- The role offers significant autonomy, broad technical impact, and opportunities to specialize or grow into technical leadership.