Software Engineer, ML Infrastructure, Level 5

Snap Inc.

Palo Alto, California, United States · Seattle, Washington, United States · Los Angeles, California, United StatesFull-time$209,000–$313,000Posted Oct 29, 2026

About the role

Snap Inc is a technology company. We believe the camera presents the greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. Snap contributes to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together.

The Company operates Snapchat, a visual messaging app that enhances your relationships with friends, family, and the world, and Specs Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary dedicated to making computing more human, in addition to Bitmoji, Saturn, and other digital services.

Snap Engineering teams build fun and technically sophisticated products that reach hundreds of millions of Snapchatters around the world, every day. We’re deeply committed to the well-being of everyone in our global community, which is why our values are at the root of everything we do. We move fast, with precision, and always execute with privacy at the forefront.

We’re looking for a Software Engineer to join the ML Data Team. Our team builds the foundational data platforms (robusta/hashi, mds) to pump in the bloodstream - data to support offline model training and online feature serving. We provide the essential tools to help customers monitor and assure data quality (aegis), manage/register features, trace feature through its lifecycles and assist in feature deprecation. With the significant infra cost of this area, our team also focuses on continuous optimization of the storage/processing to sustain the ML growth of Snap.

What you’ll do:

Design and optimize infrastructure systems for machine learning workloads at scale and drive reliability and efficiency improvements across Snapchat’s ML Infrastructure

Develop high-performance inference systems to ensure fast and efficient AI model serving

Build infrastructure to perform scalable ML model training, evaluation, and inference in the cloud

Develop high-performance inference systems to ensure fast and efficient AI model serving

Build comprehensive data management systems for scalable data collection, labeling, processing, and evaluation

Work on state-of-the-art vector search algorithms to improve the precision, recall and scalability of our retrieval systems

Work closely with ML engineers to deploy cutting-edge models into production

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

Strong programming skills in Python, Java, Scala or C++

Strong problem-solving skills with a focus on system performance, scalability, and efficiency

Good understanding of distributed systems and the infrastructure components of large-scale ML

Experience with big data processing frameworks such as Spark, Flink, or Ray

Ability to collaborate and work well with others

Proven track record of operating highly-available systems at significant scale

Ability to proactively learn new concepts and apply them at work

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in a technical field such as computer science or equivalent experience

6+ years of post-Bachelor’s software development experience; or Master’s degree in a technical field + 5+ year of post-grad software development experience; or PhD in a relevant technical field+ 2+ years of post-grad software development experience

Experience building large scale production machine learning systems, distributed systems or big data processing

Preferred Qualifications:

Masters/PhD in a technical field such as computer science or equivalent industry experience

Experience working with ML Training platforms or optimizing AI model inference

Familiarity with ML frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, Caffe2, Spark ML, scikit-learn, or related frameworks

"Default Together" Policy at Snap: At Snap Inc. we believe that being together in person helps us build our culture faster, reinforce our values, and serve our community, customers and partners better through dynamic collaboration. To reflect this, we practice a “default together” approach and expect our team members to work in an office 4+ days per week.

At Snap, we believe that having a team of diverse backgrounds and voices working together will enable us to create innovative products that improve the way people live and communicate. Snap is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and committed to providing employment opportunities regardless of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected classification, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. EOE, including disability/vets.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law (by example, the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, where applicable).

Our Benefits: Snap Inc. is its own community, so we’ve got your back! We do our best to make sure you and your loved ones have everything you need to be happy and healthy, on your own terms. Our benefits are built around your needs and include paid parental leave, comprehensive medical coverage, emotional and mental health support programs, and compensation packages that let you share in Snap’s long-term success!

Compensation

In the United States, work locations are assigned a pay zone which determines the salary range for the position. The successful candidate’s starting pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, and market conditions. The starting pay may be negotiable within the salary range for the position. These pay zones may be modified in the future.

Zone A (CA, WA, NYC):

The base salary range for this position is $209,000-$313,000 annually.

Zone B:

The base salary range for this position is $199,000-$297,000 annually.

Zone C:

The base salary range for this position is $178,000-$266,000 annually.

This position is eligible for equity in the form of RSUs.

If you believe this job description is missing required pay transparency information, please submit a report through this form: Job Description Pay Range Disclosure.

Responsibilities

  • Design and optimize infrastructure systems for large-scale machine learning workloads.
  • Improve reliability, performance, and efficiency across ML infrastructure.
  • Build scalable systems for model training, evaluation, inference, and data management.
  • Develop vector search and retrieval systems.
  • Partner with ML engineers to deploy models into production.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in a technical field or equivalent experience.
  • Six or more years of post-bachelor’s software development experience, or qualifying advanced-degree experience.
  • Experience building production machine learning, distributed systems, or big data processing systems.
  • Strong programming skills in Python, Java, Scala, or C++.
  • Knowledge of distributed systems and frameworks such as Spark, Flink, or Ray.
  • Experience operating highly available systems at significant scale.

Benefits

  • Paid parental leave
  • Comprehensive medical coverage
  • Emotional and mental health support programs
  • Equity in the form of RSUs

Skills mentioned

PythonDistributed SystemsData EngineeringApache SparkApache FlinkMachine LearningModel ServingCloud ComputingPerformance OptimizationData Pipelines

About Snap Inc.

Snap is a technology company. We believe the camera presents the greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. Snap contributes to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together. The Company’s three core products are Snapchat, a visual messaging app that enhances your relationships with friends, family, and the world; Lens Studio, an augmented reality platform that powers AR across Snapchat and other services; and its AR glasses, Spectacles.

Software Development5,001-10,000 employeesSanta Monica, California

H-1B sponsorship history

Historical employer filing data was found for Snap Inc.. The employer record includes 2,325 historical certified applications. This is employer-level history, not a guarantee that this role currently offers sponsorship.