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About This Role
Job Details:
Job Description:
The Role and Impact
Intel is seeking an AI Model Performance Optimization Engineer to help deliver high-performance AI solutions that enable the next generation of client computing experiences. In this role, you will enable, validate, benchmark, optimize, and debug AI models to ensure they run efficiently and accurately across Intel hardware platforms.
Working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning frameworks, software engineering, and hardware acceleration, you will collaborate with engineers across Intel to improve AI model performance, scalability, and adoption by customers and partners worldwide.
This is an exciting opportunity for engineers passionate about Generative AI, machine learning systems, model optimization, and performance engineering who want to influence technologies used by millions of people globally.
What You Will Do
Key responsibilities will include but not limited to :
- Enable, validate, benchmark, and optimize AI models on Intel platforms.
- Analyze model performance and identify optimization opportunities.
- Debug issues across AI frameworks, software stacks, and hardware platforms.
- Develop and execute tests to ensure model functionality, accuracy, and performance.
- Collaborate with software, hardware, compiler, and architecture teams to solve technical challenges.
- Utilize AI-assisted development tools to improve engineering productivity.
- Contribute code, bug fixes, documentation, and test coverage to internal and open-source projects.
- Work effectively with globally distributed engineering teams.
Mentor junior engineers and share technical expertise across the team. *
Behavioral traits that we are looking for:
- Curiosity and Learning Agility: Demonstrates a passion for learning emerging AI technologies, frameworks, and development methodologies.
- Problem Solving: Approaches complex technical challenges with structured analysis and creative thinking.
- Ownership: Takes initiative, drives issues to resolution, and delivers high-quality results with accountability.
- Collaboration: Works effectively across software, hardware, architecture, and product teams to achieve shared objectives.
- Adaptability: Thrives in fast-paced environments where priorities and technologies evolve rapidly.
- Communication: Communicates complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Global Teamwork: Works effectively across geographically distributed teams and diverse perspectives.
Intel invests in our people and offers a complete and competitive package of benefits employees and their families through every stage of life.
- See Intel Benefits for more details.
Qualifications:
You must possess the below minimum qualifications to be initially considered for this position. Preferred qualifications are in addition to the minimum requirements and are considered a plus factor in identifying top candidates.
Note:
For information on Intel’s immigration sponsorship guidelines, please see
Intel U.S. Immigration Sponsorship Information
Minimum Qualifications and Experience :
Bachelor's degree in a Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related technical discipline with 3+ years of hands-on experience in AI frameworks, algorithms, and programming OR Master's degree in the same field with 1+ years of experience.
Your experience described above must be in the following:
- Programming in Python and/or C++.
- Experience with machine learning or deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
Performance analysis, profiling and optimization. *
Preferred Qualifications and Experience :
- Linux and/or Windows operating systems.
- Git-based software development workflows.
- Experience with GenAI models (LLM, VLM, VLA) or OpenVINO.
- Understanding of parallel programming, preferably with experience in SYCL or OpenCL.
- Previous publications or contributions to AI research.
- Familiarity with OpenVINO or other AI inference frameworks.
Experience contributing to open-source software projects. *
Why Join Intel
At Intel, you'll help shape the future of AI by developing technologies that improve the performance and efficiency of AI applications used worldwide. You'll collaborate with industry-leading engineers, work across the AI software and hardware stack, and contribute to innovative solutions that power next-generation computing experiences.
Job Type:
Experienced Hire Shift:
Shift 1 (United States of America) Primary Location:
US, California, Santa Clara Additional Locations:
Posting Statement:
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, religious creed, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, military and veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by local law, regulation, or ordinance. Position of Trust
N/A Benefits
We offer a total compensation package that ranks among the best in the industry. It consists of competitive pay, stock bonuses, and benefit programs which include health, retirement, and vacation. Find out more about the benefits of working at Intel .
Annual Salary Range for jobs which could be performed in the US: $149,750.00-275,580.00 USD
The range displayed on this job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target compensation for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific compensation range for your preferred location during the hiring process.
Work Model for this Role
This role will be eligible for our hybrid work model which allows employees to split their time between working on-site at their assigned Intel site and off-site. * Job posting details (such as work model, location or time type) are subject to change. *
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Intel is committed to Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) compliance and ethical hiring practices. We do not charge any fees during our hiring process. Candidates should never be required to pay recruitment fees, medical examination fees, or any other charges as a condition of employment. If you are asked to pay any fees during our hiring process, please report this immediately to your recruiter.
Salary Context
This $149K-$275K range is above the median for AI/ML Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $178K across 2239 roles with salary data).
View full AI/ML Engineer salary data →Role Details
About This Role
AI/ML Engineers build and deploy machine learning models in production. They work across the full ML lifecycle: data pipelines, model training, evaluation, and serving infrastructure. The role has evolved significantly over the past two years. Where ML Engineers once spent most of their time on model architecture, the job now tilts heavily toward inference optimization, cost management, and integrating LLM capabilities into existing systems. Companies want engineers who can ship production systems, and the experimenter-only role is fading fast.
Day-to-day, you're writing training pipelines, debugging data quality issues, setting up evaluation frameworks, and figuring out why your model performs differently in staging than it did on your dev set. The best ML engineers are obsessive about reproducibility and measurement. They instrument everything. They know that a model is only as good as the data feeding it and the infrastructure serving it.
Across the 11,520 AI roles we're tracking, AI/ML Engineer positions make up 76% of the market. At Intel Corporation, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week might include: debugging a data pipeline that's silently dropping 3% of training examples, running A/B tests on a new model version, writing documentation for a feature flag system that lets you roll back model deployments, and reviewing a junior engineer's PR for a new evaluation metric. Meetings tend to be cross-functional since ML touches product, engineering, and data teams.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
Skills Required
Python and PyTorch dominate the requirements. Most roles expect experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and familiarity with ML frameworks like TensorFlow or JAX. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) has become a top-3 skill requirement as companies integrate LLMs into their products. Docker and Kubernetes show up in about a third of postings, reflecting the production focus of the role.
Beyond the core stack, employers increasingly want experience with experiment tracking tools (MLflow, Weights & Biases), feature stores, and vector databases. Fine-tuning experience is valuable but less common than you'd think from reading Twitter. Most production LLM work is RAG and prompt engineering, not fine-tuning. If you have both, you're in a strong position.
Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
Compensation Benchmarks
AI/ML Engineer roles pay a median of $212,040 based on 13,780 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $193,200. Disclosed range: $149K to $275K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $213,480. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,000. The 90th percentile reaches $318,400. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($266,050) and AI Engineering Manager ($253,461). By seniority level: Entry: $112,320; Mid: $193,200; Senior: $230,000; Director: $272,250; VP: $235,830.
Intel Corporation AI Hiring
Intel Corporation has 7 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across Research Engineer, AI/ML Engineer. Positions span Santa Clara, CA, US, Folsom, CA, US, Phoenix, AZ, US. Compensation range: $240K - $315K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 6% (708 positions) offer remote work, while 10,737 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (3,257 roles, $221,000 median); San Francisco (2,766 roles, $260,550 median); Los Angeles (1,580 roles, $210,000 median).
Career Path
Common paths into AI/ML Engineer roles include Data Scientist, Software Engineer, Research Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward ML Architect, AI Engineering Manager, Principal ML Engineer.
The fastest path into ML engineering is through software engineering with a self-directed ML education. A CS degree helps, but production engineering skills matter more than academic credentials. Build something that works, deploy it, and measure it. That portfolio project is worth more than a Coursera certificate. For career growth, the fork comes around the senior level: go deep on technical complexity (staff/principal track) or move into managing ML teams.
What to Expect in Interviews
Expect system design questions around ML pipelines: how you'd build a training pipeline for a specific use case, handle data drift, or design A/B testing infrastructure for model deployments. Coding rounds typically involve Python, with emphasis on data manipulation (pandas, numpy) and algorithm implementation. Take-home assignments often ask you to build an end-to-end ML pipeline from raw data to deployed model.
When evaluating opportunities: Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 11,520 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 140 entry-level, 5,630 mid-level, 4,176 senior, and 1,574 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 6% of the market (708 positions). The remaining 10,737 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $213,480. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,000. The 90th percentile reaches $318,400. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($266,050 median, 70 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($253,461 median, 58 roles); Research Engineer ($252,000 median, 476 roles).
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 11,520 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (8,769), AI Software Engineer (586), AI Product Manager (511). 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 (140) are outnumbered by mid-level (5,630) and senior (4,176) 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 1,574 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 6% of all AI roles (708 positions), with 10,737 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 $213,480. Top-quartile roles start at $264,000, and the 90th percentile reaches $318,400. 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 Safety roles lead at $266,050 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. 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 (2,267 postings), Aws (1,178 postings), Azure (972 postings), Rag (924 postings), Gcp (715 postings), Pytorch (586 postings), Claude (572 postings), Kubernetes (559 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
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