Distinguished Engineer, AI Infrastructure

Who are we?

Job Summary

Responsibilities

• Scope as a Distinguished Engineer
• Define and own the multi-year technical vision and reference architecture for AI infrastructure across Equinix, aligning product, platform, and network strategy
• Influence executive leadership and company-wide technology investments, and represent Equinix with strategic customers, partners, standards bodies, and industry forums
• Mentor and develop Senior Principal and Principal Engineers, and shape the technical talent bar for the organization
• Build AI Infrastructure Products
• Design, build, and operate infrastructure and inference-related products and services, and the APIs customers use to consume them
• Write production-quality code, primarily in Go, and set a high bar for code quality, testing, and design reviews
• Design API-first, service-oriented architectures that are secure, well documented, and easy for customers and partners to integrate with
• Track the fast-moving inference ecosystem (serving frameworks, accelerators, model optimization) and bring the right technologies into our products
• Incubate and Launch Zero-to-One Products
• Take new ideas from concept to prototype to production launch, partnering closely with Product Management to shape requirements and define MVPs
• Move quickly in ambiguous problem spaces: run proofs of concept, make build-vs-buy calls, and turn early learnings into a durable architecture
• Help shape the product roadmap by translating customer needs and market shifts into technical strategy
• Platform, Scale & Reliability
• Architect and run platforms and services that scale across Equinix’s global data center footprint
• Apply platform engineering, DevOps, and SRE practices (automation, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, observability, SLOs, incident response) so that what we launch stays reliable at scale
• Identify and resolve systemic reliability, performance, and cost issues across the platform
• Networking & Interconnection
• Integrate AI infrastructure products with Equinix Fabric, Network Edge, and other interconnection products so customers can securely connect AI workloads to clouds, partners, and their own environments
• Partner with network architecture and product teams to design low-latency, resilient connectivity for distributed inference
• Technical Leadership & Mentorship
• Lead architecture and design reviews, and author the design documents and decision records that guide the team
• Mentor and grow engineers, raise the technical bar, and help build a strong engineering culture on a new team
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, Security, Operations, and go-to-market teams, and engage directly with strategic customers and partners

Qualifications

• Technical Expertise
• Strong experience building and operating distributed systems and services at scale
• Hands-on production experience with Kubernetes and the cloud-native ecosystem (containers, operators, Helm, service mesh, or similar)
• Proficiency in Go; experience with Python or other systems languages is a plus
• Deep experience designing APIs and service-oriented or microservices architectures
• Solid background in platform engineering, DevOps, or SRE, including CI/CD, infrastructure as code (e.g., Terraform), observability, and reliability engineering
• Experience with AI/ML inference (e.g., model serving frameworks such as vLLM, Triton, or KServe; GPU scheduling; performance tuning), or a strong, demonstrated interest in growing deep expertise in this space
• Working knowledge of networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, routing, BGP, load balancing, overlays) and how they apply to multisite, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments
• Leadership & Experience
• Track record of taking new products or platforms from zero to one and through launch
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and driving decisions with incomplete information
• Proven ability to influence technical direction across teams without direct authority
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to explain complex technical concepts to technical and non-technical audiences
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
• Preferred Qualifications
• Experience with GPU infrastructure and accelerated computing (e.g., NVIDIA GPU Operator, CUDA ecosystem, RDMA/RoCE/InfiniBand)
• Experience building on or integrating with interconnection or network-as-a-service platforms
• Background at a cloud provider, data center, or infrastructure-as-a-service company
• Open-source contributions (e.g., CNCF projects), conference talks, or published technical writing
• The targeted pay range for this position in the following location is / locations are:
• United States - Redwood City Office GHQ : 276,000 - 414,000 USD / Annual
• United States - Denver Office DEO : 230,000 - 344,000 USD / Annual
• United States - Dallas Infomart Office DAI : 230,000 - 344,000 USD / Annual
• United States - Tampa Office TAO : 230,000 - 344,000 USD / Annual
• United States - New York City Office NYO1 : 253,000 - 379,000 USD / Annual
• Canada - Toronto Office TRO : 206,000 - 308,000 CAD / Annual
• Our pay ranges reflect the minimum and maximum target for new hire pay for the full-time position determined by role, level, and location. The pay range shown is based on our compensation structure in place at the time of posting and may be updated periodically based on business needs. Individual pay is based on additional factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education and/or training.
• The targeted pay range listed reflects the base pay only and does not include bonus, equity, or benefits. Employees are eligible for bonus, and equity may be offered depending on the position.

Equinix Benefits

• As an employee, you become important to Equinix’s success. We ensure all your benefits are in line with our core values: competitive, inclusive, sustainable, connected and efficient. We keep them competitive within the current marketplace to ensure we’re providing you with the best package possible. So, wherever you are in your career and life, you’ll be able to enhance your experience and bring your whole self to work.
• Employee Assistance Program : An Employee Assistance program is available to all employees.
• Equinix is committed to ensuring that our employment process is open to all individuals, including those with a disability. If you are a qualified candidate and need assistance or an accommodation, please let us know by completing this form .
• Equinix is an Equal Employment Opportunity and, in the U.S., an Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to unlawful consideration of race, color, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, place of birth, citizenship, sex, pregnancy / childbirth or related medical conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or domestic partnership status, age, veteran or military status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, political / organizational affiliation, status as a victim or family member of a victim of crime or abuse, or any other status protected by applicable law.
• We use artificial intelligence in our hiring process. Learn more here .