Principal Machine Learning Engineer

About this role

The Opportunity  

Firefly Foundry is Adobe's enterprise managed-service offering for custom multimedia generative AI — deep-tuned image, video, and 3D models built on each customer's IP, paired with creative production workflows and a media-intelligence layer, and deployed across new and existing Adobe surfaces and products, including Firefly, Photoshop, Illustrator, Express, Stock, and Premiere.  

We are hiring a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to serve as the technical lead for our GenAI Services area. This is not a model-training or research role — it is the senior-most hands-on engineering authority over how our generative models are architected,   optimized , and served at enterprise scale. You will set the inference architecture and technical standards that a growing organization of engineers builds against, co-develop and optimize the inference code that makes those systems fast and cost-efficient, and architect the APIs and product backend that let Adobe's first-party and third-party models reach both internal applications and external plugin integrations. Where the Director owns the multi-year technical strategy, headcount, and company roadmap for the org, you own the architecture, technical depth, and hands-on execution that make that strategy real — spanning multiple engineering teams without owning their people management.  

What this role owns  

• The technical architecture for composing,   optimizing , and serving heterogeneous generative model pipelines — LLMs, diffusion and transformer-based image/video models, RAG and retrieval systems, multi-turn agentic flows, and 3D/mesh pipelines — across the GenAI Services area.  

• The optimization strategy for inference performance: latency, throughput, and cost-to-serve across model families and GPU fleets.  

• The system design standards for pipeline composition, multi-tenant serving, and the product backend/API and plugin surface that integrates   first-party   and third-party generative models into Adobe's flagship products.  

• Technical direction across multiple engineering teams as the principal authority on architecture and design — a cross-team scope, distinct from the Director's org-wide roadmap and   management   ownership.  

Who you will partner with  

• Applied Science   — to translate research models and emerging techniques into production-grade inference architecture.  

• Director, ML Engineering and ML Engineering leadership   —   to align   technical architecture with organizational strategy and priorities.  

• Product Managers and TPMs   — to define and deliver against the roadmap for GenAI services and APIs.  

• Firefly Foundry Studio and AI Platform   — to translate creative production workflows into performant services and to   align on   shared infrastructure and serving primitives.  

What you will do  

• Lead the development of core GenAI services and APIs that integrate a wide range of first-party and third-party generative models into Adobe's flagship products.  

• Architect ML   serving   workflows for enterprise-scale model customization, deployment, and ecosystem integration — including externalizable, self-serve fine-tuning flows.  

• Co-develop and   optimize   GPU-accelerated inference pipelines — prioritizing latency, throughput, scalability, and reliability — using tools such as   PyTorch , CUDA, Triton, and   TensorRT .  

• Design and   architect   the product backend and plugin ecosystem that lets internal applications and external integrations consume Firefly Foundry's model services.  

• Provide hands-on technical leadership: guide engineers through architecture, design, implementation, and best practices, and mentor a growing organization of ML engineers.  

• Research and evaluate emerging inference and   MLOps   technologies — serving runtimes, quantization , GPU   scheduling — to improve engineering velocity and system performance.  

• Lead design reviews and set technical standards, ensuring high reliability and maintainability across systems.  

• Drive cross-functional alignment with Product Managers, TPMs, and engineering leaders to define and deliver on the roadmap.  

• Foster a culture of technical excellence and continuous improvement across the organization.  

What you bring  

• MS or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field — or equivalent industry experience.  

• 8+ years of experience in machine learning engineering, including production-scale deployment and serving — not training or research experimentation.  

• 3+ years leading the technical direction of large-scale, GPU-intensive GenAI inference systems — serving, architecture, and optimization.  

• Deep experience with inference frameworks and tools such as   PyTorch , CUDA, Triton,   TensorRT , Nvidia Dynamo, and Python.  

• Strong understanding of generative model architectures — diffusion models, transformers, GANs, LLMs — sufficient to make architecture and optimization calls and reason   about   output quality, in partnership with Applied Science.  

• Proven experience architecting multi-model pipelines and serving them behind APIs at enterprise scale.  

• Experience designing product backend systems and plugin architectures consumed by internal applications and external integrations.  

• Proven success leading cross-functional teams through complex, high-stakes technical initiatives, with   a track record   of driving alignment in matrixed organizations.  

• Excellent communication and technical leadership skills.  

Preferred Qualifications  

• Experience with model serving, orchestration, and GPU resource management in large-scale environments.  

• Hands-on   expertise   in Kubernetes, distributed systems, and   MLOps   platforms.  

• Experience with RAG architectures and multi-turn, agentic conversational systems.  

• Experience with quantization, distillation, or other model-optimization techniques for inference.  

Education  

• Master's or PhD in Computer

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