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About This Role
Meta designs and deploys its own AI systems. MTIA, the Meta Training and Inference Accelerator, is Meta's family of in-house AI accelerator ASICs, deployed in production across Meta's data centers and expanding workload coverage from ranking and recommendation to generative AI. The MTIA Software team is part of the AI & Compute Foundation organization. Because the hardware is ours, the software is ours too: we build the entire stack a chip vendor would normally supply: compiler and toolchain, runtime, kernel libraries, developer tooling, and deep PyTorch integration, co-designed with the silicon teams generation over generation.The GenAI Frameworks org owns the layer where a model meets the machine. We take frontier models, including large language, multimodal and diffusion models, and make them run efficiently on MTIA. Our work determines how fast those models respond, how much context they can afford to hold, how many of them a given amount of silicon can serve, and how quickly a newly released model can be running and trusted in production.We are hiring a Software Engineer to own a key area of GenAI inference on MTIA, spanning serving frameworks, distributed inference, graph-mode execution and compilation, and core PyTorch integration. This is a domain-expert role: you will set technical direction for your area, drive ambiguous multi-quarter programs across team boundaries, and own the quality bar for accuracy, stability, performance, and test coverage on custom silicon.
Software Engineer, GenAI Frameworks - MTIA Responsibilities:
- Serve as technical owner and domain expert for a key GenAI inference framework area: serving runtime, distributed inference, graph-mode execution and compilation, or core PyTorch integration
- Lead ambiguous, multi-quarter technical programs end to end: technical design, execution, test strategy and CI, rollout, and production hardening across teams and org boundaries
- Design, implement, and ship features in generative AI inference frameworks and the MTIA integration layers beneath them, from prototype through production deployment
- Own performance for production inference workloads end to end: profile across frameworks, runtime, compiler, and kernel boundaries, identify where time actually goes, and drive the fix to the correct layer rather than the convenient one
- Build and extend the distributed inference substrate: hierarchical KV caching, cross-host transfer paths, disaggregated prefetch and decode, and parallelism strategies for long-context and mixture-of-experts serving
- Optimize the runtime and execution path: graph capture and replay, host-side latency, memory allocation and placement, and throughput under real traffic conditions
- Enable frontier models on MTIA and validate accuracy against GPU baselines, closing correctness gaps and distinguishing real regressions from stale references
- Own the quality bar for your area, ensuring accuracy, stability, latency, and throughput, and test coverage with regression detection that keeps a win from quietly eroding
- Partner with kernel, compiler, and silicon teams on hardware/software co-design, producing framework-level evidence that shapes the future silicon while the design can still change
- Provide technical leadership: mentor other engineers, raise the design quality through reviews, and communicate decisions clearly through design documents and cross-team reviews
Minimum Qualifications:
- 5+ years of hands-on experience with generative AI inference or training frameworks, or production model-serving systems
- Proficiency in Python, C++, or Rust, including low-level systems code and performance-critical paths
- Experience with GenAI inference optimization: prefill and decode optimization, KV-cache management and compression, batching and scheduling, and reasoning about latency and throughput tradeoffs
- Experience with runtime-level optimization: graph-mode execution, host-side latency reduction, memory allocation and placement
- Demonstrated experience leading technical design and end-to-end delivery of frameworks or infrastructure projects, including test strategies and CI, across team boundaries
- Experience debugging numerical accuracy issues and defending accuracy and stability bars, not just performance
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience with long-context inference techniques: context and sequence parallelism, ring or streaming attention, hierarchical or offloaded KV cache
- Experience with AI accelerator platforms (GPU, TPU, or custom ASICs) and bringing up a new hardware backend in a major machine learning framework
- Experience with low-precision numerics and quantization (FP8, block-scaled formats, INT8/INT4), including calibration and accuracy error analysis, debugging tools for distributed systems
- Demonstrated ability to integrate AI tools to optimize/redesign workflows and drive measurable impact (e.g., efficiency gains, quality improvements)
- Experience adhering to and implementing responsible, ethical AI practices (e.g., risk assessment, bias mitigation, quality and accuracy reviews)
- Experience with distributed inference or training at scale: tensor, pipeline, and expert parallelism, collective communication primitives, RDMA transports, and multi-host serving, scale-up and scale-out design
- Experience with performance optimization in production environments, with a track record of using profiling and tracing to understand and resolve performance bottlenecks
- Experience with LLM inference serving stacks, including continuous batching, paged or chunked attention, speculative decoding, prefix caching, disaggregated prefill and decode, or mixture-of-experts routing and load balancing
- Demonstrated ongoing AI skill development (e.g., prompt/context engineering, agent orchestration) and staying current with emerging AI technologies
About Meta:
Meta builds technologies that help people connect, find communities, and grow businesses. When Facebook launched in 2004, it changed the way people connect. Apps like Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp further empowered billions around the world. Now, Meta is moving beyond 2D screens toward immersive experiences like augmented and virtual reality to help build the next evolution in social technology. People who choose to build their careers by building with us at Meta help shape a future that will take us beyond what digital connection makes possible today—beyond the constraints of screens, the limits of distance, and even the rules of physics.
Meta is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Meta participates in the E-Verify program in certain locations, as required by law. Please note that Meta may leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies in connection with applications for employment.
Meta is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability, please let us know at [email protected].
$183,997/year to $257,000/year + bonus + equity + benefits
Individual compensation is determined by skills, qualifications, experience, and location. Compensation details listed in this posting reflect the base hourly rate, monthly rate, or annual salary only, and do not include bonus, equity or sales incentives, if applicable. In addition to base compensation, Meta offers benefits. Learn more about benefits at Meta.
Salary Context
This $183K-$257K range is above the 75th percentile for AI Software Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $192K across 198 roles with salary data).
Role Details
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 9,079 AI roles we're tracking, AI Software Engineer positions make up 5% of the market. At Meta, 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
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 $220,000 based on 1,601 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $193,200. Disclosed range: $183K to $257K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $213,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $263,911. The 90th percentile reaches $318,400. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($256,000) and Research Engineer ($252,000). By seniority level: Entry: $111,000; Mid: $193,200; Senior: $229,300; Director: $272,300; VP: $235,830.
Meta AI Hiring
Meta has 52 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, Research Scientist, Research Engineer, AI Safety. Positions span New York, NY, Austin, TX, US, Burlingame, CA, US. Compensation range: $170K - $347K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 6% (531 positions) offer remote work, while 8,478 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (3,078 roles, $221,000 median); San Francisco (2,646 roles, $261,000 median); Los Angeles (1,486 roles, $210,000 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 9,079 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 106 entry-level, 4,384 mid-level, 3,343 senior, and 1,246 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 6% of the market (531 positions). The remaining 8,478 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $213,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $263,911. The 90th percentile reaches $318,400. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($256,000 median, 66 roles); Research Engineer ($252,000 median, 457 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($251,622 median, 55 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 9,079 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (6,862), AI Product Manager (453), AI Software Engineer (451). 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 (106) are outnumbered by mid-level (4,384) and senior (3,343) 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 1,246 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 6% of all AI roles (531 positions), with 8,478 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 $213,000. Top-quartile roles start at $263,911, 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 $256,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $141,440. 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 (1,649 postings), Aws (898 postings), Azure (723 postings), Rag (671 postings), Gcp (536 postings), Pytorch (434 postings), Claude (410 postings), Kubernetes (406 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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