Senior/Staff Software Engineer, AI Infrastructure

About SmartNews

SmartNews is a global leader in redefining information and news discovery, committed to providing users with accurate, timely information and supporting quality journalism. We combine the power of our unique machine-learning technology with the expertise of our first-rate editorial team to bring news that matters to millions of users from our over 3,000 global publishing partners.

Founded in 2012 in Tokyo, Japan, SmartNews has offices in Tokyo, San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York, and Singapore.

The Team

Our AI Infrastructure team is responsible for building cutting-edge infrastructure and toolings for feature engineering, distributed training, AutoML, inference services, and LLM infrastructure that can satisfy real-time requirements and scale to billions of users.

In this role, you will:

• Be responsible for setting the technical directions of critical areas of the AI Infrastructure Team by working closely with Ranking, Content Understanding and other machine learning teams of the company
• Lead design and implementation of core systems of AI platforms that support feature engineering platforms, distributed training, and highly scalable inference services;
• Work across the team and effectively resolve collaboration issues with dependency and client teams to deliver AI Infrastructure projects successfully
• Solve the hardest problems of the team

Requirements

Required Experience

• 5+ years of experience in architecting, developing, and shipping software products with large-scale

• 2+ years of experience in the fields of AI infrastructure/platform
• Expert coding abilities in multiple programming languages (e.g., Java, C++, Python, Scala)
• Experience with Hive, Airflow, Scylla, Redis, Elasticsearch
• Experience in development related to Spark, Hadoop, Flink, ClickHouse, Presto/Trino
• Experience with data processing related to an app or website.
• Able to distill complex problems and drive toward creative solutions. Able to have a deep end-to-end understanding of sophisticated distributed systems and can proactively detect problems and make/implement improvement suggestions
• Able to demonstrate strong leadership and set an example at the team level for engineering excellence
• Able to thrive in a dynamic environment where goals and requirements may be changing
• Solid understanding of how state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms work on a large scale and proven track record of building supporting infrastructure
• Good written and spoken communication skills can work across functional teams
• MS or BS in computer science, mathematics, physics, or other quantitative fields

Nice to have

• Experience developing ranking/recommendation/search-related systems 
• Failure analysis and performance tuning in JVM operation

Benefits

Perks and Benefits at the SmartNews Tokyo Office

• Lunch and snacks prepared daily in our on-site kitchen facility
• In-office coffee stand offering single-origin coffees, espresso-based beverages, teas, and other seasonal drinks
• SmartSelect, our support program for employee self-development, well-being, and productivity
• All healthcare and social insurance required by the Japanese labor law

Visa Sponsorship and Relocation Support

• Work visa sponsorship is available for candidates who meet eligibility requirements

• To support a smooth transition for candidates who are moving to Japan from overseas, SmartNews partners with a travel service provider