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Staff Machine Learning Engineer

Location
San Francisco, California
Compensation
$190k–$285k/yr
Level
staff
Type
full time · On-site

Posted by employer 8 months ago

First seen on Joblaze 6 months ago

Last verified on the company career page 4 hours ago

Requirements

Experience
2–8 years

Not disclosed in this posting: visa sponsorship.

Joblaze summary

In this role, the Staff Machine Learning Engineer at Databricks will focus on developing and deploying advanced AI models that enhance the functionality of products like Databricks Assistant and AI/BI Genie. Key skills include proficiency in Python and frameworks like TensorFlow or PyTorch, along with experience in language modeling and ML pipeline design. This position is ideal for candidates with 2-8 years of experience in machine learning engineering or relevant academic research, who are eager to contribute to cutting-edge AI solutions in a fast-paced environment.

Joblaze insights

  • Listed about 6 months ago — first seen on Joblaze April 14, 2026. Last confirmed on Databricks's careers page October 28, 2026.
  • Salary band is in line with the typical range for AI/ML roles (median ~$190,000).
  • Starts above 21% of 96 comparable staff ai/ml roles in United States that list Python we track (median $229,000 across 39 companies). See Python salary trends
  • Python appears in 48.8% of 281 comparable staff ai/ml roles in United States; Generative AI appears in 3.6% of 281 comparable staff ai/ml roles in United States.

Quick facts

Is the Staff Machine Learning Engineer role remote?
No — this is an on-site role in San Francisco, California.
What's the salary range?
Databricks lists $190,000–$285,000 for this role.
How much experience is required?
2–8 years of relevant experience for this Staff Machine Learning Engineer role.
Where is the role based?
Databricks is hiring for this position in San Francisco, California.
What's the tech stack?
Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: Feature Engineering, Generative AI, LLM, Language modeling, Machine Learning, PyTorch.
What seniority level is this role?
Databricks targets staff-level candidates for this position.
Is this full-time or contract?
Full-time for this Staff Machine Learning Engineer role at Databricks.

From the original posting

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.

If you're excited about pushing the boundaries of AI in real-world applications, we’d love to hear from you!

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

Benefits

Standard company text repeated across Databricks's postings is omitted here.

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