Principal ML Engineer

What You’ll Do

As a Principal Machine Learning Engineer, you will operate at the company level—defining technical strategy, driving architectural decisions, and shaping the future of generative AI at Typeface. 

You will lead the design of large-scale ML systems and shared platforms that power all generative capabilities across agents, text, image, audio, and video. This role requires a strong combination of deep technical expertise, product intuition, and the ability to influence teams and leadership. 

How You'll Make an Impact

• Define and drive the long-term technical vision for generative AI across Typeface’s product ecosystem 
• Lead architecture and design of scalable ML platforms (training, evaluation, inference, safety) used across multiple teams 
• Drive company-level ML strategy, aligning technical investments with product and business priorities 
• Influence and partner with executive leadership, product, and design to shape high-impact initiatives 
• Mentor senior engineers and raise the technical bar across the ML organization 
• Architect and lead development of large-scale generative AI systems powering agentic orchestration and multimodal content generation 
• Define and evolve shared ML infrastructure and platforms for training, fine-tuning, evaluation, and serving 
• Drive cross-team initiatives spanning multiple ML systems and product areas 
• Establish best practices for ML system evaluation, safety, reliability, and performance at scale 
• Identify and incubate 0→1 opportunities in generative AI with high business impact 
• Make high-leverage technical decisions that unlock velocity across teams 
• Mentor and guide engineers across levels, influencing design and execution beyond your immediate team 

What You Bring

• 15+ years of experience building and scaling machine learning systems, with demonstrated impact at the Principal level 
• Master’s or PhD degree in Computer Science or a related field
• Proven track record of driving multi-team or company-level technical strategy 
• Experience leading large, ambiguous, high-impact initiatives (platforms and/or 0→1 systems) 
• Deep expertise in ML systems and infrastructure, including training, evaluation, and inference at scale 
• Strong background in Generative AI / LLMs / multimodal systems 
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leadership and align cross-functional stakeholders 
• Track record of mentoring senior engineers and elevating engineering excellence 
• Proficiency in Python and systems-level programming (C/C++ or equivalent) 
• Bonus: Experience building ML platforms used across multiple products or teams 
• Bonus: Prior role as a Staff+ / Principal / Senior Staff engineer at a leading AI or technology company 
• Bonus: Contributions to the field (publications, patents, open-source, or widely adopted systems) 
• Bonus: Experience in enterprise SaaS or high-growth startup environments 

Location

This is a hybrid role based in our Palo Alto HQ. We collaborate in-office 3 days a week. 

Base Salary

The base salary range for this role is $230,000-$260,000. Actual compensation may vary based on level, experience, and skillset as assessed in the interview process.