Staff Software Engineer, Machine Learning

Company Description

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network, built to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. Our products help people make powerful connections, discover exciting opportunities, build necessary skills, and gain valuable insights every day. We’re also committed to providing transformational opportunities for our own employees by investing in their growth. We aspire to create a culture that’s built on trust, care, inclusion, and fun – where everyone can succeed.

Join us to transform the way the world works.

Hiring Team Description

In the CoreAI Member Understanding team we build the intelligence layer that powers LinkedIn. Our team transforms billions of onsite and offsite signals into a dynamic understanding of over 1.3B members' professional identities, skills, and intent, fueling nearly every product across the company.

We combine LLMs, representation learning and knowledge systems with highly scalable online, nearline, and offline infrastructure to deliver real-time, high-quality intelligence at global scale.

Now, we're advancing toward AI-native Data Agents systems that reason over rich member graphs, synthesize structured and unstructured signals, and continuously improve how professional identity is modeled.

Role Overview

• Title: Staff AI Scientist
• Location: Sunnyvale, San Francisco or New York City (hybrid)
• Work Model: Hybrid – work from home and from a LinkedIn office on select days, as determined by business needs.

At LinkedIn, our approach to flexible work is centered on trust and optimized for culture, connection, clarity, and the evolving needs of our business.

Responsibilities

• Lead and contribute to the research, design, and development of large‑scale foundation AI models, focusing on LLMs, transformer architectures, and cutting‑edge AI systems.
• Publish findings and innovations in leading academic and industry forums, including top‑tier AI conferences such as ICML, NeurIPS, ICLR, ACL, as well as through patents and other relevant venues.
• Stay abreast of the latest academic and industry research, applying relevant findings to improve LinkedIn's AI capabilities.
• Innovate in large‑scale model training, leveraging GPUs and specialized hardware for optimal performance.
• Develop and maintain scalable AI pipelines, optimizing training and inference workflows to handle vast amounts of data.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to team growth and knowledge sharing.
• Collaborate with cross‑functional teams of machine learning engineers, infrastructure engineers, and AI researchers to deliver impactful AI innovations across LinkedIn's products.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related technical field or equivalent practical experience
• 4+ years of experience with programming languages such as Java, Python, etc.
• 4+ years of experience in machine learning or AI engineering.
• 4+ years of experience in the design and development of algorithmic solutions.

Preferred Qualifications

• 6+ years of hands‑on experience in large‑scale model training, model‑system co‑design, or large AI systems.
• PhD in Computer Science or a relevant field, or a Bachelor's degree with 6+ years of industry experience in AI/ML.
• Proven research and innovation track record through publications in top‑tier conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML) and/or patents.
• Experience leading research projects and collaborating across teams to drive research into tangible impact.
• Proven experience in building and optimizing large‑scale AI/ML models using frameworks such as PyTorch, PySpark, and CUDA.
• Expertise in distributed training, model parallelism, and hardware acceleration for AI workloads, including GPUs and TPUs.
• Demonstrated ability to solve complex AI challenges in large‑scale environments, optimizing models for efficiency and scalability.
• Strong proficiency in AI system design, model optimization, and the development of production‑quality AI pipelines.
• Published work in AI research or significant contributions to industry‑leading AI technologies.
• Excellent communication skills and a demonstrated sense of ownership over key AI projects.

Suggested Skills

• Large Language Models (LLM)
• Generative AI (GAI)
• AI Research and Development
• GPU and Hardware Acceleration
• Distributed AI Systems and Model Parallelism

Benefits

• Generous health and wellness programs and time away for employees of all levels.
• Pay range: $170,000 – $277,000 (actual compensation based on skill set, experience, certifications, and location).
• Total compensation may include an annual performance bonus, stock, benefits, and/or other incentive compensation plans.
• For more information, visit LinkedIn Benefits.

Additional Information

Equal Opportunity Statement

We seek candidates with a wide range of perspectives and backgrounds and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. LinkedIn considers qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, sex, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, citizenship, or any other legally protected class.

LinkedIn is committed to offering an inclusive and accessible experience for all job seekers, including individuals with disabilities. Our goal is to foster an inclusive and accessible workplace where everyone has the opportunity to be successful.

If you need a reasonable accommodation to search for a job opening, apply for a position, or participate in the interview process, connect with us at accommodations@linkedin.com and describe the specific accommodation requested for a disability‑related limitation.

Reasonable Accommodations

Reasonable accommodations are modifications or adjustments to the application or hiring process that would enable you to fully participate in that process. Examples include but are not limited to:

• Documents in alternate formats or read aloud to you
• Having interviews in an accessible location
• Being accompanied by a service dog
• Having a sign language interpreter present for the interview

A request for an accommodation will be responded to within three business days. Non‑disability related requests, such as following up on an application, will not receive a response.

Pay and Legal Statements

• San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance – Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, LinkedIn will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
• Pay Transparency Policy Statement – As a federal contractor, LinkedIn follows the Pay Transparency and non‑discrimination provisions described at this link: https://lnkd.in/paytransparency.
• Global Data Privacy Notice for Job Candidates – Please follow this link to access the document that provides transparency around the way in which LinkedIn handles personal data of employees and job applicants: https://legal.linkedin.com/candidate-portal.