ML Engineer, Inference & Optimization

The job

LIVE Employer public job feed (private-sector employer) Source: the employer's public careers feed · Data: listed 2026-06-23

Job description

About the Role

We are seeking Senior/Staff level Inference Engineers to accelerate the performance of Pika's AI-driven products. In this highly technical role, you will operate at the intersection of cutting-edge inference acceleration, GPU parallelism, advanced model deployment, and video generation technologies. Your expertise will drive significant improvements to model speed and efficiency, ensuring our creative AI systems deliver industry-leading user experiences at scale.

You will design and optimize inference pipelines, implement state-of-the-art acceleration techniques, and work closely with researchers and engineers across the team to push the boundaries of what’s possible in real-time AI deployment. Your efforts will play a foundational role in powering the next generation of Pika’s video and language models.

What You’ll Do

• Accelerate Inference: Lead and implement advanced inference acceleration techniques, including attention optimization and quantization for efficient model serving.

• Maximize GPU Parallelism: Engineer and optimize GPU strategies across tensor, sequence, and pipeline parallelism (TP, SP, PP) for maximal efficiency and scalability.

• Programming for Performance: Develop and optimize high-performance computing kernels and distributed workloads using CUDA and NCCL.

• Advance AI Deployment: Collaborate with research and engineering teams to bring state-of-the-art videogen and large language models into production.

• Improve Training Efficiency: (Bonus) Contribute to improvements in model training speed, stability, and resource utilization as part of our deployment lifecycle.

• Technical Excellence: Drive rigorous code reviews, participate in technical discussions, and mentor fellow engineers on best practices in inference and GPU programming.

What We’re Looking For

• Experience: 5+ years engineering experience, with a strong track record in inference acceleration and model deployment at scale.

• Inference Mastery: Proven expertise in inference optimization, including quantization, attention acceleration, and deep learning compiler stacks.

• GPU & Parallelism: Deep knowledge of GPU programming (CUDA, NCCL) and experience with SP, TP, PP, and other forms of parallelism for distributed inference.

• AI Domain Knowledge: Familiarity with video generation (videogen) models and large language models (LLMs).

• Collaboration: Strong cross-discipline communication skills; able to drive shared goals across research and engineering functions.

• Ownership Mindset: Self-driven, solutions-oriented, and capable of managing ambiguity in a fast-paced startup environment.

• Bonus: Experience in enhancing training efficiency, stability, or resource optimization for large models.

Nice to Have

• Experience with high-throughput video or real-time streaming model deployment

• Familiarity with distributed training and optimization toolkits

• Contributions to open source projects in AI infrastructure or deep learning compilers

• Startup or rapid prototyping experience

What We Offer

• Competitive salary in the AI industry

• Equity in a fast-growing startup shaping the future of AI

• Comprehensive health benefits, monthly stipends, company retreats

• A supportive and collaborative office culture—we’re all building and launching together

About Pika

At Pika, we're crafting a future where video creation is seamless, intuitive, and universally accessible. Our mission is to empower creativity by breaking down technical barriers using the transformative power of AI. We’re a tight-knit, energetic team based in Palo Alto, CA, valuing efficiency, curiosity, and the ambition to make a meaningful impact on the world.

We work from our Palo Alto office 3–5 days a week and welcome applicants who are eager to contribute onsite.

Explore around this job

Field: Technology Sub-niche: Data, analytics and AI All jobs at Pika

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About the role

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FAQ

What is the ML Engineer, Inference & Optimization job at Pika?

A private-sector role in technology (data, analytics and ai) listed 139 days ago. The full description is on this page and on the employer's page.

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Remote / flexible (United States). A remote or flexible location is listed; confirm with the employer which states are accepted.

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How much does it pay?

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How old is this listing?

It was posted on 2026-06-23 (139 days ago). Jobs older than 90 days are not shown.

Are there similar jobs?

Yes: browse data, analytics and ai jobs in the United States.

Sources and terms

• Job data: Pika careers page public feed (listing dated 2026-06-23). The job disappears from this site when it disappears from the source.
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