Hybrid Staff Backend Engineer – AI Algorithm Platform

at Cloudinary

• Job title: Staff Backend Engineer – AI Algorithm Platform
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Lead
• Salary: Not specified
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Tech skills: AWS, Kubernetes, Python, Ruby, Go
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Israel

About the role

• Staff Backend Engineer leading engineering efforts for Cloudinary's AI algorithm platform. Focusing on system architecture, scalability, and GPU management.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture, stability, scalability, and performance of the system.
• Design and implement platform features that support both synchronous low-latency and asynchronous compute-heavy algorithm execution.
• Enhance GPU management, scheduling, and resource allocation for optimal performance and cost-efficiency.
• Ensure robust Kubernetes-based deployment and observability for a highly dynamic system.
• Act as the technical bridge between Research and Application teams by translating requirements into scalable system designs.
• Collaborate closely with algorithm developers to streamline model deployment processes.
• Partner with backend engineers (primarily working in Ruby and Go) to integrate the research group algorithms into Cloudinary services.
• Advocate for high standards in code quality, observability, testing, and security.
• Guide engineering integration efforts when consuming the different platform APIs.
• Provide mentorship, support, and best practices to other engineers interacting with the platform.
• Take part in general R&D efforts, supporting a broader production environment.
• Contribute to the evolution of our platform to support a wider range of algorithmic workloads and model types.
• Help shape tooling and infrastructure for model versioning, rollout, monitoring, and testing.
• Collaborate with DevOps and Infrastructure teams to maintain operational excellence, system observability, and robust infrastructure support.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, with 3+ years working on infrastructure/platforms involving ML/AI, GPU, or data-heavy systems.
• Proficiency in Python and familiarity with backend languages such as Ruby and/or Go.
• Strong understanding of Kubernetes internals and experience running GPU workloads in production environments.
• In-depth knowledge of AWS services.
• Experience architecting systems that support both real-time and asynchronous processing pipelines.
• Familiarity with the ML lifecycle and MLOps practices, including CI/CD for models, monitoring, and rollback strategies.

Benefits

• Opportunity to build and scale a one-of-a-kind platform powering state-of-the-art media algorithms.
• Collaborate with world-class research, engineering, and product teams.
• Have a direct impact on product experiences used by millions of developers and end-users.
• Be part of a culture that values creativity, autonomy, and continuous improvement.