Distinguished Engineer – Machine Learning for Infrastructure

Distinguished Engineer – Machine Learning for Infrastructure

Description

Posting Open Date: Feb 25, 2025

Anticipated Posting Close Date*: Feb 27, 2025

*Job posting may close early due to the volume of applicants.

Distinguished Engineer, Machine Learning for Infrastructure

Fastly is seeking a Distinguished Engineer to apply machine learning to some of the most complex challenges in large-scale distributed systems. This role is ideal for a highly skilled engineer who thrives at the intersection of ML, infrastructure, and real-time system observability.

As a Distinguished Engineer, you will work on capacity planning, performance anomaly detection, and regression detection for new software rollouts developing and deploying models that enhance the reliability and efficiency of Fastly’s global platform. This is a hands-on engineering role, where you will actively write code while collaborating with teams across engineering, operations, and product to ensure Fastly’s systems remain performant at scale.

What You’ll Do

• Apply Machine Learning to Infrastructure Challenges: Develop and implement ML-based models to improve capacity planning across Fastly’s global infrastructure.
• Build Near-Real-Time Performance Anomaly Detection: Design and deploy automated regression detection systems that identify deviations from historical performance baselines and trigger alerts when anomalies occur.
• Enhance Software Rollout Observability: Develop and integrate ML-driven regression detection for new software deployments to reduce issue detection time during canary phases, minimizing production impact.
• Operationalize AI/ML at Scale: Leverage AutoML techniques and cloud-based AI products (Vertex AI, Bedrock, etc.) to accelerate model development and deployment.
• Write High-Performance Code: Actively contribute to the development of ML pipelines and infrastructure tooling using Python, Rust, or Go.
• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Work closely with engineering, operations, and platform teams to understand large-scale system behavior and ensure ML-based insights translate into actionable improvements.
• Expand ML Capabilities to Security & DDoS Protection: Explore how anomaly detection models can enhance DDoS detection and mitigation strategies, helping Fastly better identify and respond to evolving attack patterns.

What We’re Looking For

• Hands-On ML & Engineering Expertise: This is a hands-on role – you must be comfortable writing production-quality code and building machine learning models.
• Proficiency in Python, Rust, or Go: Strong software engineering skills in one or more of these languages.
• Deep ML Knowledge: Experience with AutoML, custom model training, and cloud-based AI products (Vertex AI, Bedrock, etc.).
• Large-Scale Systems Experience: Strong understanding of distributed systems, observability, and performance tuning in complex infrastructure environments.
• Cross-Functional Communication: Ability to engage with engineering, operations, and product teams to integrate ML solutions into production workflows.
• Strategic Problem-Solving: Ability to design, prototype, and operationalize ML-driven solutions that directly impact Fastly’s reliability and efficiency.

Work Hours: 

This position will require you to be available during core business hours and occasional nights and weekends as needed to support the on-call rotation. 

Work Location(s) & Travel Requirements: 

This position is open to both hybrid and remote work locations.

The preferred hybrid locations for this position are:

• San Francisco, CA
• New York City, NY
• Denver, CO

Fastly currently embraces a largely hybrid model for most roles which allows employees flexibility to split their time between the office and home.  

We are also willing to consider remote candidates in the United States.

This position may require travel as required by your role or requested by your manager.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Salary

The estimated salary range for this position is $296,544 to $330,000.

Starting salary may vary based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as experience, skills, qualifications, and location.

This role may be eligible to participate in Fastly’s equity and discretionary bonus programs.

Benefits:

We care about you. Fastly works hard to create a positive environment for our employees, and we think your life outside of work is important too. We support our teams with great benefits that start on the first day of your employment with Fastly. Curious about our offerings? 

We offer a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, and vision insurance. Family planning, mental health support along with Employee Assistance Program, Insurance (Life, Disability, and Accident), a Flexible Vacation policy and up to 18 days of accrued paid sick leave are there to help support our employees. We also offer 401(k) (including company match) and an Employee Stock Purchase Program. For 2025, we offer 11 paid local holidays, 11 paid company wellness days. 

Benefits

Not Specified