Lead Research Engineer

<div class="content-intro"><h2><strong>Who We Are</strong></h2> <p>Lightning AI is the company behind PyTorch Lightning. Founded in 2019, we build an end-to-end platform for developing, training, and deploying AI systems—designed to take ideas from research to production with less friction.</p> <p>Through our merger with Voltage Park, a neocloud and AI Factory, Lightning AI combines developer-first software with cost-efficient, large-scale compute. Teams get the tools they need for experimentation, training, and production inference, with security, observability, and control built in.</p> <p>We serve solo researchers, startups, and large enterprises. Lightning AI operates globally with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and London, and is backed by Coatue, Index Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and Firstminute.</p> <div class="c-message_actions__container c-message__actions">&nbsp;</div></div><h2>What We're Looking For</h2> <p class="isSelectedEnd">We are seeking a highly skilled <strong>Lead Research Engineer</strong> to lead optimization efforts for training and inference workloads running on Lightning AI infrastructure. This role sits at the intersection of ML systems, AI infrastructure, performance engineering, and practical research. You’ll drive improvements across models, inference systems, and platform infrastructure to improve performance, scalability, and reliability for real-world AI workloads.</p> <p class="isSelectedEnd">This is a highly cross-functional role that combines deep technical leadership with hands-on implementation. Successful candidates are comfortable operating broadly across the stack — from model behavior and inference systems to distributed infrastructure and developer tooling — while partnering closely with customers and internal engineering teams to solve complex AI systems challenges at scale.</p> <p class="isSelectedEnd"><em>This role is based in one of our hubs (NYC, SF, London, or Seattle — NYC and London are prefer