Lead Member of Technical Staff, Inference Infrastructure

Lead Member of Technical Staff, Inference Infrastructure

Team: Model Serving

Location: San Francisco

Employment type: FullTime

Workplace type: Remote

Remote: yes

Published: 2026-04-28T09:48:38.890+00:00

Who are we?

Cohere is the leading security-first enterprise AI company. We build cutting-edge foundation AI models and end-to-end products that are designed to solve real-world business problems.

We’re training and deploying frontier models for enterprises who are building AI systems. We believe that our work is instrumental to the widespread adoption of AI and we are looking for folks that want to be part of that.

We obsess over what we build. Each one of us is responsible for contributing to increasing the capabilities of our models and the value they drive for our customers. Cohere is a team of researchers, engineers, designers, and more, who are all passionate about their craft.

We are a global technology company co-headquartered in Toronto and San Francisco, with key offices in London, New York City, Montreal, Seoul, Germany and Paris. Join us!

Why this role?

Are you energized by leading the design of high-performance, scalable and reliable machine learning systems? Do you want to set technical direction and help shape the next generation of AI platforms powering advanced NLP applications? We are looking for a Lead Member of Technical Staff to join the Model Serving team at Cohere. The team is responsible for developing, deploying, and operating the AI platform delivering Cohere's large language models through easy to use API endpoints. In this role, you will provide technical leadership across multiple teams, driving the architecture and strategy for deploying optimized NLP models to production in low latency, high throughput, and high availability environments. You will serve as a key point of contact for customers, leading the design of customized deployments to meet their specific needs, and mentoring engineers to raise the technical bar across the team.

You may be a good fit if you have:

• 8+ years of engineering experience running production infrastructure at a large scale, with a track record of technical leadership

• Demonstrated experience leading the architecture and design of large, highly available distributed systems with Kubernetes and GPU workloads on those clusters

• Deep expertise with Kubernetes dev and production coding and support, including setting team-wide standards and best practices

• Extensive experience across GCP, Azure, AWS, OCI, and multi-cloud on-prem / hybrid serving environments, with the ability to guide strategic infrastructure decisions

• Proven ability to lead the design, deployment, support, and troubleshooting of complex Linux-based computing environments at scale

• Experience owning compute/storage/network resource and cost management at an organisational level, including optimisation strategies

• Exceptional collaboration and communication skills, with experience mentoring engineers and leading cross-functional initiatives to build mission-critical systems

• The grit and adaptability to both solve and guide others through complex technical challenges that evolve day to day

• Strong expertise in the computational characteristics of accelerators (GPUs, TPUs, and/or custom accelerators), and how to leverage them to drive latency and throughput improvements at scale

• Deep knowledge of distributed systems, with experience establishing patterns and practices across engineering teams

• Proficiency in Golang, C++ or other languages designed for high-performance scalable servers, with the ability to set coding standards and conduct senior-level technical reviews

If some of the above doesn’t line up perfectly with your experience, we still encourage you to apply!

We value and celebrate diversity and strive to create an inclusive work environment for all. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and are committed to providing equal opportunities. Should you require any accommodations during the recruitment process, please submit an Accommodations Request Form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/12a6IrLdF3kI2nonKSr4tiFuz18rLQbaeYV-JM9L4o9Q/edit, and we will work together to meet your needs.

We may use AI-enabled tools to screen and assess applicants against the criteria for this position. This helps our recruiters identify potentially qualified candidates, but it doesn't limit the applications our recruiters may review or consider.

Full-Time Employees at Cohere Enjoy These Perks:

• An open and inclusive culture and work environment

• Work closely with a team on the cutting edge of AI research

• A weekly lunch stipend of $75/£75 or equivalent in your local currency for lunch.

• Full health and dental benefits, including a separate budget for mental health.

• RRSP matching, 401K, Pension Scheme.

• 100% Parental Leave top-up for up to 6 months, for either parent.

• Annual enrichment benefits:

• Arts & culture, fitness/wellness, quality time, and a workspace improvement credit.

• Education & learning stipend for conferences, courses, and coaching.

• Remote-flexible, offices in Toronto, New York, San Francisco, London and Paris, as well as a co-working stipend

• 6 weeks of paid vacation (30 working days!)

• Budget for traveling to other offices if you are remote, plus an annual company offsite.

How and Where We Work:

• Cohere is remote-friendly. We have offices in Toronto, San Francisco, New York City, London, Paris, Montreal, and more coming soon.

• For those in the office: a daily lunch program, plenty of snacks, and regular community and social events.

• For those not near an office: a co-working benefit so you can work alongside others in your city.

• Everyone receives a $500 home office stipend to set up your workspace properly.