{"id":462263,"url":"https://alion.io/job/cerence-senior-principal-ai-engineer","title":"Senior Principal AI Engineer","company":{"id":178070,"name":"Cerence","domain":"cerence.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/cerence","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":77,"open_postings":11,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.909,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":26,"computed_at":"2026-10-24T06:02:35Z"}},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"board_field","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":{"min":141400,"max":226300,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":226300},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"DeepSpeed","optional":false},{"name":"HPC","optional":false},{"name":"InfiniBand","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"Megatron-LM","optional":false},{"name":"NCCL","optional":false},{"name":"NVLink","optional":false},{"name":"PyTorch","optional":false},{"name":"Ray","optional":false},{"name":"SLURM","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-06T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-25","last_verified_at":"2026-10-24T10:04:16Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":80,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":80},"description":"A Moving Experience.\nWhat You Will Work On\nDesign and operate distributed training systems for large neural networks (autoregressive, diffusion, State Space Models etc.) across GPU clusters \nOptimise multi-node, multi-GPU execution to maximize throughput and utilization \nDiagnose & resolve bottlenecks across compute, memory, and network \nImprove training stability and fault tolerance at scale \nPartner with research and applied ML teams to productionize large-model training pipelines \nCore Responsibilities\nDistributed Training Infrastructure \nBuild and optimize GPU cluster orchestration using: \nSlurm \nKubernetes \nRay \nRunAI \nEnsure efficient scheduling, isolation, and fairness across training workloads \nCommunication & Networking \nOptimize and debug distributed communication using: \nNCCL \nRDMA \nInfiniBand \nNVLink \nMinimize networking bottlenecks that dominate end-to-end training time \nTraining Frameworks \nScale large-model training using: \nPyTorch Distributed \nMegatron-LM \nDeepSpeed \nOwn multi-node launch configurations, failure recovery, and performance tuning \nMemory & Performance Optimization \nApply advanced memory optimization techniques: \nActivation checkpointing \nZeRO (Stage 1-3) and offload strategies \nBalance compute, memory, and communication to push model size and batch scale \nWhat Success Looks Like\n GPU utilization consistently stays high (>80-90%) \nTraining scales cleanly from single node to dozens or hundreds of GPUs \nCommunication overhead is minimized and predictable \nLarge training jobs run stably for days or weeks without failure \nNew models can be trained faster, larger, and more reliably than before \nRequired Experience & Skills\n Strongly Required \nDeep hands-on experience with distributed systems or ML systems \nExperience running large-scale workloads on GPU clusters \nProduction experience with PyTorch distributed training \nStrong understanding of parallelism strategies (data, tensor, pipeline parallelism) \nLow-level understanding of GPU communication and networking \n Critical Technical Skills \nGPU orchestration: Slurm, Kubernetes, Ray, RunAI \nCommunication libraries: NCCL, RDMA, InfiniBand, NVLink \nTraining frameworks: PyTorch Distributed, Megatron-LM, DeepSpeed \nMemory optimisation: activation checkpointing, ZeRO offload techniques \nCommon Problems You’ll Be Solving\nMany teams fail at scale because: \nGPU utilization is low despite large clusters \nNetworking and communication dominate training time \nTraining jobs crash or become unstable at large scale \nYou will be explicitly focused on eliminating these failure modes. \nIdeal Background\n This role is a strong fit for individuals who have worked as: \nML Systems Engineer \nDistributed Systems Engineer \nAI Infrastructure Engineer \nHPC Engineer transitioning into ML \nExperience working with large language models or foundation models is a strong plus, but deep systems expertise is valued over pure model architecture experience. \nWhy This Role Matters\nWithout robust distributed training infrastructure, progress on large models stalls. This role directly enables:\nLarger models \nFaster iteration cycles \nMore reliable research-to-production pipelines \nYou will be building the foundation that makes large-scale AI possible.\nWhat we offer\nWe offer a generous compensation and benefits package (in addition to the base salary), including:\n· Salary range $141,400.00 USD - $226,300.00 USD It is not typical for offers to be made at or near the top of the range. The actual salary will be determined based on experience and other job-related factors.\n· Annual bonus opportunity\n· Insurance coverage (medical, dental, vision, life, and disability)\n· Paid time off\n· Paid holidays\n· Company contribution to the 401K\n· Equity awards for certain positions and levels\n· Remote and/or hybrid work available depending on the position\nAll compensation and benefits are subject to the terms and conditions of the underlying plans or programs, as applicable, and may be amended, terminated, or replaced from time to time.\nCerence Inc. (Nasdaq: CRNC and www.cerence.com) is the global industry leader in creating unique, moving experiences for the automotive world. Spun out from Nuance in October 2019, Cerence is a new, independent company that has quickly gained traction as a leader in the automotive voice assistant space, working with all of the world’s leading automakers - from Ford and Fiat Chrysler to Daimler, Audi and BMW to Geely and SAIC - to transform how a car feels, responds and learns. Its track record is built on more than 20 years of industry experience and leadership and more than 500 million cars on the road today across more than 70 languages.\nAs Cerence looks to the future and continues an ambitious growth agenda, we need someone to join the team and help build the future of voice and AI in cars. This is an exciting opportunity to join Cerence’s passionate, dedicated, global team and be a part of meaningful innovation in a rapidly growing industry.\nEQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER\nCerence is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of age, race, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sex, sex stereotyping, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, citizenship status, sexual orientation, protected military or veteran status, genetic information and other protected classifications. Cerence Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.\nAll prospective and current Employees need to remain vigilant when it comes to executing security policies in the workplace. This includes:\n- Following workplace security protocols and training programs to familiarize with the ways to maintain a safe workplace.\n- Following security procedures to report any suspicious activity.\n- Having respect for corporate security procedures to allow those procedures to be effective.\n- Adhering to company's compliance and regulations.\n- Encouraging to follow a zero tolerance for workplace violence.\n- Basic knowledge of information security and data privacy requirements (e.g., how to protect data & how to be handling this data).\n- Demonstrative knowledge of information security through internal training programs.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6338,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["401k plan","Equity","Hybrid work","Insurance coverage"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Conversational AI","Speech & Audio AI","Automotive Software"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-06T11:26:14Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":12,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":0.9,"p_active":0.475,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":79,"expected_fill_days":26,"reasons":["conf:69","stale_co","velocity","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-24T06:02:35Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":226300,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/cerence-senior-principal-ai-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/cerence-senior-principal-ai-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-25T00:26:45Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":675,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-26T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":178070},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=178070"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fcerence-senior-principal-ai-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fcerence-senior-principal-ai-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fcerence-senior-principal-ai-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/cerence-senior-principal-ai-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fcerence-senior-principal-ai-engineer"}]}