AI Platform Engineer Jobs in California
AI Platform Engineer jobs in California represent one of the most active and competitive markets in the country, concentrated in cloud infrastructure, enterprise AI, and machine learning operations roles at every level from associate to principal engineer. The heaviest hiring is in San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles, where companies like Google, Meta, and Salesforce maintain large engineering organizations with dedicated AI platform teams. The most in-demand specialties are MLOps pipeline development, LLM infrastructure, and distributed systems engineering. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
Find AI Platform Engineer JobsOverview
Showing 5 of 170+ AI Platform Engineer jobs











The opportunity
Unity is hiring a Senior Software Engineer to build and operate the platform behind an internal AI product analytics agent, and the shared services other teams at Unity build on.
This role will join the platform-facing half of the team. You will spend half of your time working on platform and infrastructure engineering: the backend services, APIs, integration surfaces, access control and operational foundations that make an internal AI product safe, fast and dependable at company scale. You will also support agent capability work; including orchestration, retrieval and the interfaces people use.
The platform runs on GCP and serves data from BigQuery to users across Unity. Access control, reliability and cost are first-order product concerns, not afterthoughts.
Note: This role is one of two we're hiring on the team. If you'd rather spend your time in the analytics data layer, modelling datasets and improving the quality of what the agent knows, take a look at our Senior Software Engineer, Analytics Data & Applied AI role instead!
What you'll be doing
- Design, build and operate the backend services, APIs and self-service tooling that the platform and other Unity teams depend on.
- Own access control and data security for the platform: authentication, authorisation, permissioning of the underlying datasets, and auditability.
- Build and harden the platform's integration surfaces, including the MCP server that exposes governed data to AI tools.
- Take responsibility for reliability, performance and cost efficiency, covering latency, scaling behaviour, fault tolerance, observability and incident response.
- Raise the engineering bar on the codebase: service design, testing, CI/CD, infrastructure as code and deployment safety.
- Contribute to agent capability work end to end, including orchestration, knowledge retrieval and user-facing surfaces.
- Work with data scientists and partner teams to turn platform needs into reusable capabilities.
- Help set the roadmap and technical direction for the platform.
What we're looking for
- Experience designing, building and operating distributed systems, backend services or internal platforms in production.
- Strong backend and systems engineering skills: service design, API design, debugging and production operations.
- A solid grasp of distributed systems fundamentals, including scalability, reliability, fault tolerance and the trade-offs between them.
- Practical experience with cloud-native infrastructure, ideally GCP, plus container orchestration, CI/CD, infrastructure as code and observability tooling.
- Experience implementing authentication, authorisation or access control in systems handling sensitive data.
- Experience with, or a demonstrated interest in, LLM and agent systems, particularly orchestration and workflow design.
- A record of making progress on projects where the requirements are not fully defined.
You might also have
- Experience building products for technical end users.
- Experience operating data-intensive platforms such as pipelines, streaming systems, storage layers or analytics infrastructure.
- Familiarity with privacy, security, compliance and cost management in large-scale platform environments.
- Experience applying AI or agentic tooling to engineering workflows.
Base Salary Range: We determine the base salary range for this role based on your primary work location:
Zone A: $135,800 - $203,600 USD gross
Zone B: $153,400 - $230,200 USD gross
Zone C: $172,400 - $258,600 USD gross
This range reflects the anticipated base salary for this position. Beyond base salary, this role may be eligible for equity awards and participation in our company incentive plans (such as annual discretionary bonuses or sales commissions). The final offer amount will depend on several factors, including geographic location and the candidate’s relevant experience, professional background, and skill set.
Benefits
At Unity, we want our team members to thrive. We offer a wide range of benefits designed to support well-being and work-life balance.
Please note: Benefits eligibility, specific offerings, and coverage vary based on the country and employment status.
While specific benefits vary, here are some of the ways we strive to take care of our eligible team members globally: Comprehensive health, life, and disability insurance | Commute subsidy | Employee stock ownership | Competitive retirement/pension plans | Generous vacation and personal days | Support for new parents through leave and family-care programs | Office food snacks | Mental Health and Wellbeing programs and support | Employee Resource Groups | Global Employee Assistance Program | Training and development programs | Volunteering and donation matching program
Life at Unity
Unity [NYSE: U] is the world’s leading game engine, powering play for more than 3 billion consumers each month. The top mobile games in the world, the most played PC indie titles, the most innovative console games, and virtually all of the top XR and Web Games are developed, deployed, and grown in Unity. Unity also enables teams across industries like automotive, manufacturing, and healthcare to design, simulate, and collaborate in 3D — closing the gap between ideas and reality. For more information, please visit www.unity.com.
Unity is a proud equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment and celebrate our employees across age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law. Our differences are strengths that enable us to support the growing and evolving needs of our customers, partners, and collaborators. If you have a disability that means there are preparations or accommodations we can make to help ensure you have a comfortable and positive interview experience, please fill out this form to let us know.
This position requires the incumbent to have a sufficient knowledge of English to have professional verbal and written exchanges in this language since the performance of the duties related to this position requires frequent and regular communication with colleagues and partners located worldwide and whose common language is English.
This posting is intended to fill an existing vacancy, and we are committed to providing applicants with updates throughout the hiring process in accordance with applicable law.
Headhunters and recruitment agencies may not submit resumes/CVs through this website or directly to managers. Unity does not accept unsolicited headhunter and agency resumes. Unity will not pay fees to any third-party agency or company that does not have a signed agreement with Unity.
Your privacy is important to us. Please take a moment to review our Prospect and Applicant Privacy Policies. Should you have any concerns about your privacy, please contact us at DPO@unity.com.
See All 170+ AI Platform Engineer Jobs in California
Find roles in California that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find AI Platform Engineer JobsAI Platform Engineer Jobs by City in California
Where California roles are concentrated, by current openings.
AI Platform Engineer Job Market in California
A snapshot from current California openings, updated as new roles post.
Who's Hiring
- TikTok10

- Capital One8

- Apple6

- Information Technology Senior Management Forum6
- NVIDIA5

Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software38
- Science & Research6
- Electronics & Hardware6
- Banking & Financial Services4
- Manufacturing3
What California Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in AI platform engineer jobs across California.
- Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related technical field
- Hands-on experience building and maintaining ML pipelines using tools such as Kubeflow, MLflow, or Ray
- Proficiency with cloud platforms including Google Cloud, AWS, or Azure in production AI environments
- Strong programming skills in Python and familiarity with containerization using Docker and Kubernetes
- Experience with large-scale distributed systems, data engineering, and model deployment infrastructure
- Familiarity with CI/CD practices and infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform or Pulumi
AI Platform Engineer Jobs in California: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you become a ai platform engineer in California?
Most California employers expect a bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related discipline, though a master's degree is increasingly common at larger tech firms. There is no state-issued license for this role in California. Candidates strengthen their profile by earning cloud certifications from providers like Google or AWS, building a portfolio of deployed ML systems, and gaining hands-on experience through internships or open-source contributions to AI infrastructure projects.
How much do AI platform engineers make in California?
AI platform engineers in California earn a median of about $134,440 a year, based on May 2025 Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data, ranging from around $58,340 for the lowest 10% to over $222,690 for the top 10%. Pay rises with experience, specialty, and employer.
Which companies hire ai platform engineers in California?
Employers hiring ai platform engineers in California right now include TikTok, Capital One, and Apple, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of August 2026. California's concentration of cloud-native technology companies and enterprise software headquarters means demand runs consistently across both large established firms and well-funded growth-stage companies throughout the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
Which California cities have the most ai platform engineer jobs?
San Francisco, San Jose, and Santa Clara have the most ai platform engineer openings in California. San Francisco and San Jose dominate because they sit at the center of the Bay Area technology ecosystem, home to the headquarters of major cloud, AI, and enterprise software companies, while Los Angeles has grown significantly as a hub for media-tech, fintech, and consumer AI firms driving their own platform infrastructure needs.
Are there remote ai platform engineer jobs in California?
Yes, and more than most fields. About 60% of ai platform engineer openings tied to California are remote or hybrid as of August 2026, reflecting how much of this work involves cloud systems and code rather than on-site hardware. Infrastructure design, pipeline development, and model monitoring tasks are the most commonly performed remotely, though some roles at larger firms require on-site collaboration for security or compliance reasons.
How can I get hired as a ai platform engineer in California with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path is moving from a software engineering or data engineering role into AI platform work by picking up MLOps tooling on the job or through project work. Large California technology employers often post associate or junior platform engineer roles that accept candidates with cloud fundamentals and Python skills over deep ML experience. Building and publishing an end-to-end ML pipeline project on a public repository, earning a Google Cloud or AWS certification, and targeting companies with established new-grad programs in the Bay Area gives candidates without a formal AI background a concrete edge.
Where can I find and apply to ai platform engineer jobs in California?
You can find and apply to ai platform engineer jobs in California on Migrate Mate, which lists current California openings across the state. Find the roles that fit your experience and location and apply directly to the employers posting them.
See All 170+ AI Platform Engineer Jobs in California
Find roles in California that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find AI Platform Engineer Jobs