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Machine Learning Engineer — Reinforcement Learning

Institute of Foundation Models
Sunnyvale, USA
Full-time
Mid · 5+ years experience
Onsite
USD 150000-450000 / year
Discovered 2 weeks ago
kubernetespython

Full Job Posting

Key Responsibilities

  • Distributed Framework Ownership – Extend or modify training frameworks (e.g., DeepSpeed, FSDP) to support new use cases and architectures.
  • Training & Inference Integration – Connect training workers with rollout generation engines (e.g., vLLM, SGLang), including trajectory exchange and policy-weight synchronization.
  • Launch Config & Debugging – Create and debug multi-node launch scripts with flexible batch sizes, parallelism strategies, and hardware targets.
  • Metrics & Monitoring – Build systems for experiment tracking, job monitoring, and logging usable by collaborators and researchers.
  • Infra Engineering – Write production-quality code and tests for ML infra in PyTorch or JAX; ensure reliability and maintainability at scale.
  • RL Pipeline Development – Implement reward/verifier integration and trajectory processing, and validate log probabilities, token masks, and loss inputs with researchers.
  • RL Execution & Recovery – Coordinate rollout and training workers, including checkpoint/restart and failure recovery; track policy versions and sample staleness when using asynchronous execution.

Must-Haves:

5+ years of experience in ML systems, infra, or distributed training

Experience modifying distributed ML frameworks (e.g., DeepSpeed, FSDP, FairScale, Horovod)

Strong software engineering fundamentals (Python, systems design, testing)

Proven multi-node experience (e.g., Slurm, Kubernetes, Ray) and debugging skills (e.g., NCCL/GLOO)

Ability to implement algorithms across GPUs/nodes based on mathematical specs

Experience working on an ML platform/ infrastructure, and/or distributed inference optimization team

Experience with large-scale machine learning workloads (strong ML fundamentals)

Hands-on experience developing an LLM RL pipeline, with ownership across rollout/inference and distributed training integration.

Working knowledge of policy optimization methods such as PPO or GRPO, sufficient to implement and debug sampling, log probabilities, and policy updates.

Nice-to-Haves:

Exposure to mixed-precision training (e.g., bf16, fp8) with accuracy validation

Familiarity with performance profiling, kernel fusion, or memory optimization

Open-source contributions or published research (MLSys, ICML, NeurIPS)

CUDA or Triton kernel experience

Experience with large-scale pre-training

Experience building custom training pipelines at scale and modifying them for custom needs

Deep familiarity with training infrastructure and performance tuning

Experience with asynchronous RL, multi-turn or tool-using rollout environments, or custom reward/verifier systems.

Additional information

Visa Sponsorship This position is eligible for visa sponsorship. Benefits Include Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefits Bonus*401K Plan*Generous paid time off, sick leave and holidays*Paid Parental Leave*Employee Assistance Program*Life insurance and disability

Qualifications

  • 5+ years of experience in ML systems, infra, or distributed training
  • Experience modifying distributed ML frameworks (e.g., DeepSpeed, FSDP, FairScale, Horovod)
  • Strong software engineering fundamentals (Python, systems design, testing)
  • Proven multi-node experience (e.g., Slurm, Kubernetes, Ray) and debugging skills (e.g., NCCL/GLOO)
  • Ability to implement algorithms across GPUs/nodes based on mathematical specs
  • Experience working on an ML platform/ infrastructure, and/or distributed inference optimization team
  • Experience with large-scale machine learning workloads (strong ML fundamentals)
  • Hands-on experience developing an LLM RL pipeline, with ownership across rollout/inference and distributed training integration.
  • Working knowledge of policy optimization methods such as PPO or GRPO, sufficient to implement and debug sampling, log probabilities, and policy updates.
  • Exposure to mixed-precision training (e.g., bf16, fp8) with accuracy validation
  • Familiarity with performance profiling, kernel fusion, or memory optimization
  • Open-source contributions or published research (MLSys, ICML, NeurIPS)
  • CUDA or Triton kernel experience
  • Experience with large-scale pre-training
  • Experience building custom training pipelines at scale and modifying them for custom needs
  • Deep familiarity with training infrastructure and performance tuning
  • Experience with asynchronous RL, multi-turn or tool-using rollout environments, or custom reward/verifier systems.

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