Principal Machine Learning Engineer- LLM Fine-tuning and Optimization at Airbnb

Department: Software Engineering

Compensation

$292,000 – $365,000/yr

Setup: Remote
Type: Full-time
Level: staff+
Posted: May 24, 2026

Description

Airbnb is hiring a Principal Machine Learning Engineer for its CS AI product team to fine-tune and optimize large language models, develop LLM pipelines and autonomous AI products, and contribute to AI architecture and ML platform strategy. The role requires a PhD in a relevant technical field, at least 10 years of experience developing machine learning models and products at scale, Python and PyTorch experience, and expertise in model training, fine-tuning, inference, evaluation, and related AI technologies. The position is US-remote eligible, may include occasional office or offsite work, and offers a base pay range of $292,000 to $365,000 USD.

Required Skills

Python
PyTorch
LLM fine-tuning
LLM evaluation
RAG/Search
Model quantization
GPU inference

Additional Information

Minimum Education: PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related technical field
Required Previous Experiences: 10+ years developing machine learning models and products at scale
Python programming and PyTorch experience
Experience training, fine-tuning, optimizing models, and inference runtime
Post-training experience in fine-tuning, LLM alignment, reinforcement learning, evaluation, and multimodal modeling
Specialized experience in runtime optimization, quantization, compression, inference, PyTorch, or kernel development
Preferred Qualifications: PhD in AI, machine learning, data science, or a related technical field
Publications at peer-reviewed AI conferences
Experience with AI technologies in customer support applications
Experience with the AI product development lifecycle and agile practices
Experience deploying and scaling business-critical AI services and defining ML infrastructure architecture
Translation Company Name: Airbnb