ML Software Engineer Jobs in Palo Alto, CA
ML Software Engineer jobs in Palo Alto are concentrated across the Stanford Research Park, downtown University Avenue corridor, and the Page Mill Road tech cluster, with strong demand from AI-native startups, semiconductor firms, and established platform companies. Employers hiring right now include CURSOR, Rivian, and JPMorganChase. See the openings below and apply to the ones that match your experience.
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Engineering · Full-time · Palo Alto, CA
SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today, SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of making life multiplanetary and expanding consciousness to the stars.
SpaceXSI is building Super Intelligence to help humanity understand the universe. Our teams are building the full Super Intelligence stack: from our Colossus supercomputers, to Grok models, to our suite of applications, including Grok Bot, Grok Build, Grok Imagine, Grok Voice, and X. We're creating a powerful flywheel where more compute trains better models, better models power more useful products, and what we learn from people using those products shapes what we build next.
SR. SOFTWARE ENGINEER, ML PLATFORM
As a Software Engineer on ML Platform at SpaceXSI, you'll build the infrastructure that turns real product usage into better models, and keeps research moving fast on large GPU fleets. ML Platform is organized into four teams. Depending on your background, you may join any of them. We're looking for strong distributed-systems and infrastructure engineers who want to sit next to research and ship platform primitives that move the product.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Design, build, and operate core platform systems used daily by ML researchers and product engineers
Partner closely with research to turn recurring pain into durable infrastructure
Own reliability, performance, and developer experience for the systems in your lane
Ship iteratively in a flat, high-ownership environment. Measure impact, then raise the bar
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:
Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in computer science, machine learning, or another quantitative discipline; OR equivalent work experience
5+ years of industry experience working with production distributed systems (e.g., infrastructure, ingestion, data pipelines, or scheduling/orchestration, etc.)
PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:
Experience owning production distributed systems at meaningful scale (ingestion, data pipelines, scheduling/orchestration, or similar)
Experience partnering and building platforms for ML researchers and product engineers
Thrive where ownership is high and the feedback loop is short
Telemetry: event ingestion, product analytics pipelines, OpenTelemetry / tracing, reliable data APIs
Product Data Platform: data frameworks, Spark / Flink / Ray, ML dataset and training-data infrastructure
Observability: experiment / run monitoring, debug and eval tooling, agent-friendly observability UX
ML DevX and Systems: GPU / cluster scheduling, job queues, node health, research compute developer experience
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:
We're in-person with cozy offices in North Beach, San Francisco, Palo Alto, and Manhattan, New York, complete with well-stocked libraries
If there appears to be a fit, we'll reach out to schedule 2-3 short technicals. After, we'll schedule an onsite in our office, where you'll work on a small project, discuss ideas, and meet the team
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:
The annual compensation range for this role is listed below.
Annual Salary:
$180,000 - $330,000 USD
Your actual level and base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education, and experience.
Base salary is just one part of our total rewards package at SpaceXSI, which also includes equity, comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short & long-term disability insurance, life insurance, and various other discounts and perks.
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Find ML Software Engineer JobsML Software Engineer Job Market in Palo Alto
Who's Hiring
- CURSOR29
- Rivian29

- JPMorganChase29

- Tesla15

- Harmonic15

Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software
- Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals
ML Software Engineer Jobs in Palo Alto: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get a ml software engineer job in Palo Alto?
The strongest entry point is targeting Palo Alto's dense concentration of AI research labs, foundation model startups, and established tech platforms along the Stanford Research Park and Page Mill Road corridor. Candidates who combine production ML experience with a demonstrable research background stand out here, since many Palo Alto employers sit at the boundary between applied engineering and original research. Familiarity with large-scale distributed training and inference optimization is especially valued in this market.
Which companies hire ml software engineers in Palo Alto?
Palo Alto ml software engineer roles are posted by CURSOR, Rivian, and JPMorganChase and others right now, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. The local employer mix ranges from well-funded AI startups and spinouts from Stanford research groups to the Palo Alto offices of major platform and semiconductor companies.
Are there remote ml software engineer jobs in Palo Alto?
Yes, though availability depends on the role: positions focused on modeling, experimentation, and research infrastructure tend to be more remote-friendly than those involving on-site hardware, robotics, or datacenter work. About 34% of ml software engineer openings tied to Palo Alto are remote or hybrid as of November 2026, reflecting the flexibility many local tech employers have adopted post-pandemic. Roles in NLP, recommendation systems, and ML platform engineering are most commonly offered with remote or hybrid flexibility in Palo Alto.
How can I get a ml software engineer job in Palo Alto with little or no experience?
The most realistic path is targeting early-stage AI startups in the Stanford Research Park and University Avenue area that hire at the ML engineer or research engineer level and value project work and open-source contributions over years of industry experience. Internship pipelines at Stanford-affiliated labs and Palo Alto-based AI companies frequently convert to full-time offers. Building a public portfolio of end-to-end ML projects, contributing to open-source frameworks, and engaging with the local AI research community through Stanford seminars and meetups all strengthen a candidate's position in this market.
Which industries hire the most ml software engineers in Palo Alto?
Most ml software engineer openings in Palo Alto sit in Technology & Software and Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals, per current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. Palo Alto's role as a hub for foundation model research, enterprise AI platforms, and semiconductor design explains why those sectors consistently generate the highest concentration of local ML engineering demand.
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