Senior Principal Software Engineer

Company Description

At Red Hat, we connect an innovative community of customers, partners, and contributors to deliver an open source stack of trusted, high-performing solutions. We offer cloud, Linux, middleware, virtualization, and AI technologies, together with award-winning global customer support, consulting, and implementation services. Red Hat is a rapidly-growing company supporting more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies.

Job Summary

Red Hat's Global Engineering Team is looking for a Senior Principal Software Engineer to join our newly formed AI Engineering organization. This role will be located within the RHEL AI Core Components team, and will be focused on inferencing platform strategy and architecture, as well as virtual large language model (vLLM) productization as part of our RHEL AI product. This will involve participating in the development of novel techniques to support vLLM and establishing Red Hat leadership in upstream vLLM communities. 

You will need to develop and maintain working relationships across multiple teams, planning and prioritizing work across a small team, along with direct contribution to development projects at a senior level of ability. This role will also require deep connections across Red Hat and IBM Research, collaborating with other engineering teams within Red Hat and peer IBM Research scientists to develop AI the open source way. 

This is a high-growth area of Red Hat’s business, so being effective in a fast-growing team and contributing to defining skill sets needed to build a cohesive team will be critical. This role requires a combination of technical expertise, strategic thinking, and strong technical leadership and influence skills. Successful candidates for this role must have strong knowledge of Red Hat’s customers as well as Red Hat’s product portfolio and emerging technologies. As this is a fast-moving area of opportunity for Red Hat, the ability to communicate productively and effectively with team members, stakeholders, and Red Hat leadership is critical.

This position reports directly to the Senior Manager of Software Engineering for RHEL AI Core Components. Successful applicants must reside in a state where Red Hat is registered to do business.

Primary Job Responsibilities (what you’ll do)

• Drive and coordinate contributions to vLLM as Red Hat’s strategic inferencing server. 

• Act as a bridge between platform research and product teams, supporting the delivery of platform components to IBM watsonx.ai, Red Hat OpenShift AI and others.

• Connect related work being done across different IBM research teams, helping to channel research into core components of Red Hat’s AI products.

• Design and develop scalable and efficient architectures for training and deploying large language models.

• Participate in and lead upstream data science and machine learning project communities, building Red Hat’s credibility and influence in these communities.

• Identify and resolve complex issues related to model training, inference, and system performance.

• Collaborate with other engineers, data scientists, and researchers to align on goals and product requirements.

• Implement optimizations for model training and inference to improve performance, efficiency, and resource utilization.

• Run experiments, tests, and large-scale distributed jobs in support of AI product features.

• Mentor junior engineers and provide guidance on complex technical issues and best practices.

Required Skills (what you’ll bring)

• Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent.

• Advanced programming skills in Python and SQL.

• Expertise in deep learning frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch) and architectures, particularly for natural language processing (NLP).

• Expertise with vLLM and other inference runtimes. 

• In-depth understanding of the design, training, and deployment of LLMs.

• Experience with the design and implementation of scalable and efficient system architectures for training and deploying large models.

• Knowledge of microservices and containerization technologies (e.g., Kubernetes) for deployment.

• Strong self-motivation and organizational skills.

• Demonstrated ability to context switch between multiple concurrent projects.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Positive attitude and willingness to share ideas openly.

Bonus qualifications

• Masters or PhD in Machine Learning (ML) / Natural Language Processing (NLP).

• Experience with unit testing, integration testing, and performance testing.

• Familiarity with participating in an agile development team.

Pay Transparency

Red Hat determines compensation based on several factors including but not limited to job location, experience, applicable skills and training, external market value, and internal pay equity. Annual salary is one component of Red Hat’s compensation package. This position may also be eligible for bonus, commission, and/or equity. For positions with Remote-US locations, the actual salary range for the position may differ based on location but will be commensurate with job duties and relevant work experience. 

About Red Hat

Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to deliver high-performing Linux, cloud, container, and Kubernetes technologies. Spread across 40+ countries, our associates have the flexibility to choose the work environment that suits their needs from in-office to fully remote to office-flex. Red Hatters are encouraged to bring their best ideas, no matter their title or tenure. We're a leader in open source because of our open and inclusive environment. We hire creative, passionate people ready to contribute their ideas, help solve complex problems, and make an impact. Opportunities are open. Join us.

Benefits
●    Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
●    Flexible Spending Account - healthcare and dependent care
●    Health Savings Account - high deductible medical plan
●    Retirement 401(k) with employer match
●    Paid time off and holidays
●    Paid parental leave plans for all new parents
●    Leave benefits including disability, paid family medical leave, and paid military leave
●    Additional benefits including employee stock purchase plan, family planning reimbursement, tuition reimbursement, transportation expense account, employee assistance program, and more! 

Note: These benefits are only applicable to full time, permanent associates at Red Hat located in the United States. 

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Red Hat
Red Hat’s culture is built on the open source principles of transparency, collaboration, and inclusion, where the best ideas can come from anywhere and anyone. When this is realized, it empowers people from diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to come together to share ideas, challenge the status quo, and drive innovation. Our aspiration is that everyone experiences this culture with equal opportunity and access, and that all voices are not only heard but also celebrated. We hope you will join our celebration, and we welcome and encourage applicants from all the beautiful dimensions of diversity that compose our global village.

Equal Opportunity Policy (EEO)
Red Hat is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We review applications for employment without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, veteran status, genetic information, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, or any other basis prohibited by law.

Red Hat does not seek or accept unsolicited resumes or CVs from recruitment agencies. We are not responsible for, and will not pay, any fees, commissions, or any other payment related to unsolicited resumes or CVs except as required in a written contract between Red Hat and the recruitment agency or party requesting payment of a fee.

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