Role overview
About Start2Scale
Start2Scale is a talent acquisition advisory and recruitment consultancy, built for tech companies during their startup and scaleup stages. We're proud to support numerous VC-backed startups across the globe in building world-class, mission-aligned teams.
About the company
A San Francisco-headquartered tech company - a multiple-time unicorn and recognised leader in enterprise AI infrastructure - is hiring a
Lead MLOps Engineer
to drive their production ML systems in Seattle.
You'll be the technical lead for a team of 4 engineers focused on bridging the gap between data science prototypes and scalable, production-grade AI services. This is a hands-on leadership role - you'll set technical direction, guide architecture decisions, and mentor the team while staying deep in the code.
What you'll work on
- Lead the technical direction for converting research prototypes into production microservices
- Architect and maintain ML deployment infrastructure using Kubernetes, with exposure to tools like Ray and other AI orchestration frameworks
- Design and own MLOps CI/CD pipelines, zero-downtime deployments, and model versioning strategies
- Drive performance optimisation, observability, and reliability for high-scale inference workloads
- Mentor and guide a team of 4 engineers without formal management responsibilities
- Partner with data scientists to ensure research outputs are productionised with scalability in mind
What You Bring
- 8+ years software engineering experience, with significant focus on ML infrastructure and deployment
- Strong hands-on experience with Kubernetes orchestration for ML workloads
- Proficiency in Python; Golang (Go) is a plus
- Experience with cloud platforms (GCP preferred) and infrastructure-as-code
- Track record of taking ML models from prototype to production at scale
- Familiarity with AI deployment tooling (Ray, model serving frameworks, inference optimisation)
- Ability to lead technically without relying on positional authority
Location & Compensation
Seattle, WA - hybrid (1-2 days/week in office).
Base salary $300k-$350k+, depending on experience.
Start2Scale is committed to building an inclusive workplace and welcome applications from talented people regardless of race, age, ancestry, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, color, veteran status, disability and socioeconomic background.