Software Engineer, Distributed Systems

fal is the generative media ecosystem powering the next generation of AI products. We build the infrastructure, tools, and model access that teams need to move from idea to production, and do it at scale without compromise. For developers and enterprises, fal is the foundation that makes generative media not just possible, but practical: a unified platform where high-performance inference, orchestration, and observability come together to unlock new categories of AI-native products.

As generative media reshapes industries across a market projected to grow by hundreds of billions over the next decade, fal is becoming the ecosystem that ambitious teams build on.

About this role:

You are an experienced software engineer who thrives on building large-scale computing platforms. You have deep expertise in large scale distributed systems that deal with high complexity, a lot of traffic and data. You know how to achieve reliability and scale with minimum operational load.

Key responsibilities

Build our core Python/Rust platform: request routing, AI workload orchestration, scheduling, GPU autoscaling, large scale file storage, queueing, etc

Produce forward designs for platform evolution as we scale to 100x current traffic and need to provide low latency across the world

Leverage AI to an extreme level to automate the mundane parts of building complex but reliable systems

Profile and tune low level CPU and memory performance

Requirements

3+ years experience building distributed compute and orchestration platforms in Python or Rust

Strong understanding of distributed systems fundamentals: consensus, scheduling, fault tolerance, capacity planning

Deep understanding of computational complexity and memory allocation

Track record of designing systems that scale under real production load

Experience building and using observability to drive performance and reliability decisions

Excellent communication and ability to drive technical decisions across teams

Self-starter who executes quickly, takes ownership, and constantly seeks improvement

Nice to have

Experience with AI/ML inference or training infrastructure

Experience with high-performance systems programming (async runtimes, zero-copy, memory-safe concurrency)

Background in building multi-tenant compute platforms

Understanding of networking fundamentals and performance characteristics

Familiarity with GPU workload characteristics and scheduling constraints

Compensation

$180,000-250,000 plus equity + benefits (This range is across all 3 levels Mid, Senior and Staff)

Location

San Francisco, CA

What we offer at fal

Interesting and challenging work

A lot of learning and growth opportunities

We are currently hiring in downtown San Francisco.

We offer relocation assistance to San Francisco.

Health, dental, and vision insurance (US)

Regular team events and offsites

U.S. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY INFORMATION:

fal provides equal employment opportunities to applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other classification protected by applicable law.

#J-18808-Ljbffr