Staff II Software Engineer AI/ML Ops

$245K - $307K Pleasanton, CA, US Senior AI Software Engineer

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Skills & Technologies

AwsAzureDockerFivetranGcpKubernetesLangchainMlflowPythonPytorch

About This Role

AI job market dashboard showing open roles by category

Make Your Mark::

We’re looking for a Lead Data Engineer to design, build, and optimize data pipelines that power our next\-generation AI\-driven accounting agents. You’ll lead the development of scalable, high\-performance data infrastructure while collaborating closely across teams.

Responsibilities:* Lead data pipeline development: Build and maintain PySpark ETL pipelines with high data quality and performance

  • Manage integrations: Establish robust connections to client data sources via APIs and tools like FiveTran, Plaid, and BlackLine’s own internal connector ecosystem
  • Ensure reliability: Monitor pipeline performance, automate testing, and validate data accuracy
  • Optimize for scale: Implement performance improvements (e.g., CDC mechanisms, indexing strategies) for large\-scale datasets
  • Collaborate \& innovate: Work with business stakeholders to refine data requirements and integrate cutting\-edge AI and big data technologies

You'll Get To::

Leadership and Strategy* Partner with data science, security, and product teams to set evaluation and governance standards (Guardrails, Bias, Drift, Latency SLAs).

  • Mentor senior engineers and drive design reviews for ML pipelines, model registries, and agentic runtime environments.
  • Lead incident response and reliability strategies for ML/AI systems.

AI System Deployment and Integration:* Collaborate with development teams to integrate AI solutions into existing workflows and applications.

  • Ensure seamless integration with different platforms and technologies.
  • Define and manage MCP Registry for agentic component onboarding, lifecycle versioning, and dependency governance.
  • Build CI/CD pipelines automating LLM agent deployment, policy validation, and prompt evaluation of workflows.
  • Develop and operationalize experimentation frameworks for agent evaluations, scenario regression, and performance analytics.
  • Implement logging, metering, and auditing for agent behavior, function calls, and compliance alignment.
  • Create scalable observability systems—tracking conversation outcomes, factual accuracy, latency, escalation patterns, and safety events.
  • Architect end\-to\-end guardrails for AI agents including prompt injection protection, identity\-aware routing, and tool usage authorization.
  • Collaborate cross\-functionally to standardize authentication, authorization, and session governance for multi\-agent runtimes.

Model Deployment and Integration:* Architect and standardize model registries and feature stores to support version tracking, lineage, and reproducibility across environments.

  • Lead the deployment of machine learning models into production environments, ensuring scalability, reliability, and efficiency.
  • Collaborate with software engineers to integrate machine learning models into existing applications and systems.
  • Implement and maintain APIs for model inference.

Infrastructure and Environment Management:* Design and manage training infrastructure including distributed training orchestration, GPU/TPU resource allocation, and automatic scaling.

  • Implement CI/CD for model workflows using pipelines integrated with model validation, bias checks, and rollback automation.
  • Build standardized experimentation frameworks for reproducible training, tuning, and deployment cycles (MLflow, W\&B, Kubeflow).
  • Manage and optimize the infrastructure required for machine learning operations in cloud.
  • Work closely with other teams to ensure the availability, security, and performance of machine learning systems.

Monitoring and Maintenance:* Implement robust monitoring solutions for deployed machine learning models to detect issues and ensure performance.

  • Collaborate with data scientists and engineers to address and resolve model performance and data quality issues.
  • Conduct regular system maintenance, updates, and optimizations to ensure optimal performance of machine learning solutions.

Automation and Orchestration:* Develop and maintain automation scripts and tools for managing machine learning workflows.

  • Implement orchestration systems to streamline the end\-to\-end machine learning lifecycle, from data preparation to model deployment.

Collaboration with Data Science Teams:* Collaborate with data scientists to understand model requirements and constraints for deployment.

  • Facilitate the transition of machine learning models from research to production, ensuring scalability and efficiency.

Performance Optimization:* Identify and implement optimizations to enhance the performance and efficiency of machine learning models in production.

  • Conduct performance analysis and implement improvements based on resource utilization of metrics.

Security and Compliance:* Implement security measures to protect machine learning systems and data.

  • Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards related to machine learning and data privacy.
  • Integrate audit controls, metadata storage, and lineage tracking across ML and AI workflows.
  • Ensure complete monitoring and feedback loops including event logs, evaluations, and automated retraining triggers.
  • Enforce secure deployment patterns with Infrastructure\-as\-Code and cloud\-native secrets management.
  • Define SLAs, error budgets, and compliance reporting mechanisms for ML and AI systems.

What You'll Bring::

Knowledge: Typically possesses extensive practical experience with consistent, demonstrated success developing effective business solutions/applications for products or services that may effect broad areas of the org \| Expert solution builder

Competencies: Recognized expert within and outside of the organization Possesses industry expertise as an individual contributor to operations \| Sets objectives and delivers results that have an impact within the department or division \| Provides advice, counsel and thought leadership within the department \| Influencer/architect/orchestrator High level strategic influence \| Decisions impact business unit's or department's strategic direction \| Anticipates emerging trends \| Accountable to 3\+ year horizon \| Futurist mindset \| Expert operator High level of unprecedented work or experience \| High degree of autonomy and exercises independent discretion \| Accountable for complex, highly strategic duties requiring functional expertise \| Develops path through org's most ambiguous endeavors \| Developer of innovation or adaptation

We’re Even More Excited If You Have::

  • Education and Experience:
  • Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Data Science, or a related field.
  • Technical Skills:
  • Strong programming skills in languages such as Python, Java, or Scala.
  • Expertise in ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit\-learn) and orchestration tools (Airflow, Kubeflow, Vertex AI, MLflow).
  • Proven experience operating production pipelines for ML and LLM\-based systems across cloud ecosystems (GCP, AWS, Azure).
  • Deep familiarity with LangChain, LangGraph, ADK or similar agentic system runtime management.
  • Strong competencies in CI/CD, IaC, and DevSecOps pipelines integrating testing, compliance, and deployment automation.
  • Hands\-on with observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, Newrelic) for model and agent performance tracking.
  • Understanding of governance frameworks for Responsible AI, auditability, and cost metering across training and inference workloads.
  • Proficiency in containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).
  • Operations and Infrastructure:
  • Proficient in scripting languages (e.g., Bash, python) for automation.
  • Experience with workflow orchestration tools (e.g., Apache Airflow).
  • Expertise in managing and optimizing cloud\-based infrastructure.
  • Familiarity with DevOps practices and tools for automated deployment.
  • Understanding of network configurations and security protocols.
  • Problem\-solving and Critical Thinking:
  • Ability to define problems, collect and analyze data, and propose innovative solutions. Strong critical thinking skills to evaluate models, identify limitations, and
  • Adaptability and Learning Agility:
  • Comfortable working in a fast\-paced, rapidly evolving environment. Proactive in staying up to date with the latest trends, techniques, and technologies in AI/data science

Thrive at BlackLine Because You Are Joining::

  • A technology\-based company with a sense of adventure and a vision for the future. Every door at BlackLine is open. Just bring your brains, your problem\-solving skills, and be part of a winning team at the world's most trusted name in Finance Automation!
  • A culture that is kind, open, and accepting. It's a place where people can embrace what makes them unique, and the mix of cultural backgrounds and varying interests cultivates diverse thought and perspectives.
  • A culture where BlackLiner's continued growth and learning is empowered. BlackLine offers a wide variety of professional development seminars and inclusive affinity groups to celebrate and support our diversity.

BlackLine is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity or expression, race, ethnicity, age, religious creed, national origin, physical or mental disability, ancestry, color, marital status, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking, medical condition, genetic information, or any other protected class or category recognized by applicable equal employment opportunity or other similar laws.

BlackLine recognizes that the ways we work and the workplace itself have shifted. We innovate in a workplace that optimizes a combination of virtual and in\-person interactions to maximize collaboration and nurture our culture. Candidates who live within a reasonable commute to one of our offices will work in the office at least 2 days a week.

Salary Range:: USD $245,000\.00/Yr. \- USD $307,000\.00/Yr.

Salary Context

This $245K-$307K range is above the 75th percentile for AI Software Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $190K across 193 roles with salary data).

Role Details

Company BlackLine
Title Staff II Software Engineer AI/ML Ops
Location Pleasanton, CA, US
Category AI Software Engineer
Experience Senior
Salary $245K - $307K
Remote No

About This Role

AI Software Engineers build the applications and systems that AI models run inside. They own the API layers, data pipelines, frontend integrations, and infrastructure that turn a model into a product users interact with. Every AI company needs engineers who can build the software around the AI.

The challenge is building reliable systems around inherently unreliable components. Models are probabilistic. They'll give different answers to the same question. They hallucinate. They're slow. They're expensive. Your job is to build an application layer that handles all of this gracefully while delivering a product that users trust and enjoy.

Across the 3,824 AI roles we're tracking, AI Software Engineer positions make up 7% of the market. At BlackLine, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.

AI Software Engineer roles are among the most numerous in the AI job market. Every company deploying AI needs software engineers who understand AI integration patterns. The demand is broad, spanning startups to enterprises, across every industry adopting AI capabilities.

What the Work Looks Like

A typical week includes: building API endpoints that serve model inference with caching and fallback logic, designing the data pipeline that feeds context to a RAG system, implementing streaming responses in the frontend, debugging a race condition in the async inference pipeline, and optimizing database queries for the vector search layer. It's full-stack engineering with AI at the center.

AI Software Engineer roles are among the most numerous in the AI job market. Every company deploying AI needs software engineers who understand AI integration patterns. The demand is broad, spanning startups to enterprises, across every industry adopting AI capabilities.

Skills Required

Aws (31% of roles) Azure (23% of roles) Docker (10% of roles) Fivetran Gcp (19% of roles) Kubernetes (12% of roles) Langchain (11% of roles) Mlflow (4% of roles) Python (51% of roles) Pytorch (15% of roles)

Full-stack engineering skills with AI integration experience. Python and TypeScript are the most common requirements. You'll need to understand API design, database architecture, and how to build reliable systems around probabilistic outputs. Experience with streaming, async processing, and caching patterns is increasingly important as real-time AI applications proliferate.

Knowledge of vector databases, embedding APIs, and LLM integration patterns (function calling, structured outputs, retry logic) differentiates AI software engineers from general software engineers. Understanding cost optimization (caching strategies, model routing, batched inference) is valuable since inference costs can dominate application economics.

Strong postings describe the product you'll be building, the AI integration patterns you'll work with, and the scale requirements. Look for companies that have existing AI features and need engineers to improve and expand them, not companies that are 'planning to add AI' someday.

Compensation Benchmarks

AI Software Engineer roles pay a median of $234,620 based on 682 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $227,400. This role's midpoint ($276K) sits 18% above the category median. Disclosed range: $245K to $307K.

Across all AI roles, the market median is $200,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,000. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Engineering Manager ($293,500) and AI Safety ($274,200). By seniority level: Entry: $97,380; Mid: $160,000; Senior: $227,400; Director: $243,000; VP: $250,000.

BlackLine AI Hiring

BlackLine has 3 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI Software Engineer, AI/ML Engineer, MLOps Engineer. Based in Pleasanton, CA, US. Compensation range: $163K - $322K.

Location Context

Across all AI roles, 16% (613 positions) offer remote work, while 3,187 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (2,448 roles, $210,000 median); San Francisco (1,990 roles, $253,000 median); Los Angeles (1,686 roles, $189,000 median).

Career Path

Common paths into AI Software Engineer roles include Software Engineer, Full-Stack Developer, Backend Engineer.

From here, career progression typically leads toward Staff Engineer, AI Architect, Engineering Manager.

If you're a software engineer, you're already 80% there. Learn the AI integration patterns: RAG, streaming inference, function calling, structured outputs. Build a project that demonstrates you can wrap an AI model in a production-quality application with proper error handling, caching, and user experience. That's the portfolio piece that gets you hired.

What to Expect in Interviews

Technical screens look like standard software engineering interviews with an AI twist. Expect system design questions about building reliable applications around probabilistic models: handling streaming responses, implementing retry logic for API failures, and designing caching strategies for LLM outputs. Coding rounds test standard algorithms plus practical integration patterns like async processing and rate limiting.

When evaluating opportunities: Strong postings describe the product you'll be building, the AI integration patterns you'll work with, and the scale requirements. Look for companies that have existing AI features and need engineers to improve and expand them, not companies that are 'planning to add AI' someday.

AI Hiring Overview

The AI job market has 3,824 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 119 entry-level, 1,813 mid-level, 1,472 senior, and 420 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 16% of the market (613 positions). The remaining 3,187 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.

The market median for AI roles is $200,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,000. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. Highest-paying categories: AI Engineering Manager ($293,500 median, 31 roles); AI Safety ($274,200 median, 51 roles); Research Engineer ($260,000 median, 401 roles).

AI Software Engineer roles are among the most numerous in the AI job market. Every company deploying AI needs software engineers who understand AI integration patterns. The demand is broad, spanning startups to enterprises, across every industry adopting AI capabilities.

The AI Job Market Today

The AI job market spans 3,824 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,702), Data Scientist (281), AI Software Engineer (258). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.

The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (119) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,813) and senior (1,472) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 420 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.

Remote work availability sits at 16% of all AI roles (613 positions), with 3,187 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.

AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $200,000. Top-quartile roles start at $253,000, and the 90th percentile reaches $307,500. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.

Category matters for compensation. AI Engineering Manager roles lead at $293,500 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $142,800. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.

The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,968 postings), Aws (1,203 postings), Azure (882 postings), Rag (877 postings), Gcp (735 postings), Prompt Engineering (587 postings), Pytorch (586 postings), Claude (554 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.

Frequently Asked Questions

Based on 682 roles with disclosed compensation, the median salary for AI Software Engineer positions is $234,620. Actual compensation varies by seniority, location, and company stage.
Full-stack engineering skills with AI integration experience. Python and TypeScript are the most common requirements. You'll need to understand API design, database architecture, and how to build reliable systems around probabilistic outputs. Experience with streaming, async processing, and caching patterns is increasingly important as real-time AI applications proliferate.
About 16% of the 3,824 AI roles we track offer remote work. Remote availability varies by company and seniority level, with senior and leadership roles more likely to offer location flexibility.
BlackLine is among the companies actively hiring for AI and ML talent. Check our company profiles for detailed breakdowns of open roles, salary ranges, and hiring trends.
Common next steps from AI Software Engineer positions include Staff Engineer, AI Architect, Engineering Manager. Progression depends on whether you lean toward technical depth, people management, or product strategy.

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