Senior Software Engineer - Inference Apps

In 2012, Lambda started with a crew of AI engineers publishing research at top machine-learning conferences. We began as an AI company built by AI engineers. That hasn't changed. Today, we're on a mission to be the world's top AI computing platform. We equip engineers with the tools to deploy AI that is fast, secure, affordable, and built to scale. Whether they need powerhouse GPU hardware on-site or the flexibility of cloud-based solutions, we've got the horsepower to make it happen. Lambda’s AI Cloud has been adopted by the world’s leading companies and research institutions including Anyscale, Rakuten, The AI Institute, and multiple enterprises with over a trillion dollars of market capitalization. Our goal is to make computation as effortless and ubiquitous as electricity.

If you'd like to build the world's best deep learning cloud, join us. 

Note: This position requires presence in our San Francisco office location 4 days per week; Lambda’s designated work from home day is currently Tuesday.

What You’ll Do

• Work on Lambda’s Inference-based apps, from their core components (scalable distributed backend systems, tool calling, multi-tenant data integrations, semantic layer, etc) to user-facing web and platform native applications.

• Build systems that make bleeding edge LLM application features available and consistent across the newest open source models, and help define standards around them. Including accessing user’s data, MCP integrations, tool calling, etc.

• Own the full feature lifecycle from a hypothesis to fast prototyping, shipping, evaluating feature performance, and iterating on it.

• Work closely with Lambda Inference, Core Apps, Platform, and Special Projects teams, other large players in the industry, and the open source community.

• Make the newest, highest leverage and most impactful and useful features of language models available to more folks, in a privacy-first, open source-first environment. Our work will help independent researchers get their models into the market.

• Help build the newest, ambitious line of business at Lambda. Own the outcomes for the features you will work on, and work directly with stakeholders across the company, as well as our partners outside of the company.

You

• 10+ years of experience building software products. You’re already a senior, experienced software engineer.

• 1 year or more of experience working on LLM-based applications, including hybrid search systems, user data integrations, evals, and tracing.

• 5+ years of experience with Python and/or Typescript. This role will focus mainly on the backend first, however, we’re a small team, and you will be expected to write Typescript in our (modern) React and Svelte codebases, as well as prototype frontends for your experimental apps.

• You’re resourceful and you take ownership. You’re driven by outcomes, not just output of your work.

• You have an insatiable desire to ship.

• You take a user-centric approach to building products and developer tools.

• A passion for continuous learning and improvement (both at a personal and team level).

• You enjoy building leverage through abstractions and tooling that multiply output.

• Ability to influence without authority and work with engineers junior and senior, experience working with operations, platforms, and infrastructure teams.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. You communicate proactively, you worked with hybrid and remote-first async teams before.

Nice to Have

• Experience building OAuth integrations.

• Experience implementing data pipelines.

• Extensive experience building with language models.

• Experience leading a team in a tech lead role previously is a strong plus.

• Experience starting a company is a strong plus.

Salary Range Information

Based on market data and other factors, the annual salary range for this position is $255,000 - $405,000. However, a salary higher or lower than this range may be appropriate for a candidate whose qualifications differ meaningfully from those listed in the job description.

About Lambda

• Founded in 2012, ~350 employees (2024) and growing fast

• We offer generous cash & equity compensation

• Our investors include Andra Capital, SGW, Andrej Karpathy, ARK Invest, Fincadia Advisors, G Squared, In-Q-Tel (IQT), KHK & Partners, NVIDIA, Pegatron, Supermicro, Wistron, Wiwynn, US Innovative Technology, Gradient Ventures, Mercato Partners, SVB, 1517, Crescent Cove.

• We are experiencing extremely high demand for our systems, with quarter over quarter, year over year profitability

• Our research papers have been accepted into top machine learning and graphics conferences, including NeurIPS, ICCV, SIGGRAPH, and TOG

• Health, dental, and vision coverage for you and your dependents

• Commuter/Work from home stipends for select roles

• 401k Plan with 2% company match (USA employees)

• Flexible Paid Time Off Plan that we all actually use

A Final Note:

You do not need to match all of the listed expectations to apply for this position. We are committed to building a team with a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and skills.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Lambda is an Equal Opportunity employer. Applicants are considered without regard to race, color, religion, creed, national origin, age, sex, gender, marital status, sexual orientation and identity, genetic information, veteran status, citizenship, or any other factors prohibited by local, state, or federal law.