ML Platform Engineer
UniversalAGI · San Francisco
📍 San Francisco | 🏢 5 Days Onsite
Location: Onsite in San Francisco
Compensation: Competitive Salary + Equity
Who We Are
Engineering simulation is one of the last major categories of software that AI hasn't rebuilt. The tools used to design aircraft, ships, reservoirs, and medical devices still run on numerical methods that are decades old, and an engineer can wait a full day for a single answer. UniversalAGI is building foundation models that learn physics directly from data, and they are already running in early deployments on real computational fluid dynamics and reservoir engineering problems for some of the largest industrial and defense organizations in the world.
We are a team of 25 researchers and engineers in San Francisco backed by Elad Gil (#1 Solo VC), Eric Schmidt (former Google CEO), Prith Banerjee (ANSYS CTO), Ion Stoica (Databricks Founder), Jared Kushner (former Senior Advisor to the President), David Patterson (Turing Award Winner), and Luis Videgaray (former Foreign and Finance Minister of Mexico).
About the Role
UniversalAGI is hiring a ML Platform Engineer to build and own the execution platform powering our research and customer deployments: data generation + simulation orchestration + training/fine-tuning infrastructure + benchmarking pipelines + production deployments in customer environments.
You’ll work closely with the CEO and founding team to turn research into repeatable, scalable, reliable systems - internally and in customer infrastructure. This is a “ship outcomes” role: your work directly determines how fast we can iterate, how reproducible our results are, and how reliably we deliver in production.
What You’ll Do
Build the foundation platform (internal):
Build and operate scalable infrastructure for data generation and simulation workflows (job orchestration, scheduling, queues, retries, observability).
Build reproducible pipelines for training/fine-tuning and benchmarking (artifact/version management, experiment tracking, dataset lineage).
Own cost/performance tradeoffs across compute, storage, networking, and runtime efficiency.
Deploy to customers (external):
Lead deployments of our stack into customer cloud/on-prem environments (AWS/GCP/Azure + hybrid), including secure networking, permissions, and data movement.
Build robust deployment patterns: environment provisioning, CI/CD, rollbacks, monitoring, and incident response.
Partner with customers to ensure reliability and repeatability under real-world constraints (security, compliance, infra limits, data governance).
Qualifications
Strong software engineering skills (clean code, debugging, reliability, reproducibility).
Hands-on experience building/operating infrastructure for ML/compute-heavy workflows: pipelines, job orchestration, GPU compute, storage, CI/CD, monitoring.
Olympic athlete mindset: You have high standards for yourself and are obsessed with measurable improvement on the metrics you are delivering to customers.
Resourcefulness: you know when to do the “quick & correct” fix vs. when to invest in a robust solution, and you can justify the tradeoff with impact/
Ownership: Comfortable owning work end-to-end and being accountable for measurable outcomes.
Bonus Qualifications
Experience with workflow orchestration (e.g., Ray, Kubernetes, Slurm).
Experience with GPU infrastructure and distributed training systems.
Experience building evaluation/benchmarking frameworks with strong reproducibility guarantees.
Experience deploying into regulated / security-sensitive environments (gov/defense/enterprise).
Experience with simulation/HPC pipelines (CFD, meshing, batch workloads) is a plus but not required.
Experience in an FDE-style / delivery execution role (or similar “ship results fast” environments).
Cultural Fit
Technical Respect: Ability to earn respect through hands-on technical contribution
Intensity: Thrives in our unusually intense culture - willing to grind when needed
Customer Obsession: Passionate about solving real customer problems, not just cool tech
Deep Work: Values long, uninterrupted periods of focused work over meetings
High Availability: Ready to be deeply involved whenever critical issues arise
Communication: Can translate complex technical concepts to customers and team
Growth Mindset: Embraces the compounding returns of intelligence and continuous learning
Startup Mindset: Comfortable with ambiguity, rapid change, and wearing multiple hats
Work Ethic: Willing to put in the extra hours when needed to hit critical milestones
Team Player: Collaborative approach with low ego and high accountability
What We Offer
Opportunity to shape the technical foundation of a rapidly growing foundational AI company.
Work on cutting-edge industrial AI problems with immediate real-world impact.
Direct collaboration with the founder & CEO and ability to influence company strategy
Competitive compensation with significant equity upside.
In-person first culture - 5 days a week in office with a team that values face-to-face collaboration.
Access to world-class investors and advisors in the AI space.
Benefits
We provide great benefits, including:
Competitive compensation and equity.
Competitive health, dental, vision benefits paid by the company.
401(k) plan offering.
Flexible vacation.
Team Building & Fun Activities.
Great scope, ownership and impact.
AI tools stipend.
Monthly commute stipend.
Monthly wellness / fitness stipend.
Daily office lunch & dinner covered by the company.
Immigration support.
How We’re Different
“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again... who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly." - Teddy Roosevelt
At our core, we believe in being “in the arena.” We are builders, problem solvers, and risk-takers who show up every day ready to put in the work: to sweat, to struggle, and to push past our limits. We know that real progress comes with missteps, iteration, and resilience. We embrace that journey fully knowing that daring greatly is the only way to create something truly meaningful.
If you're ready to join the future of physics simulation, push creative boundaries, and deliver impact, UniversalAGI is the place for you.
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