Distinguished Engineer, AI Infrastructure

• Location: Redwood City
• Who are we?
• Equinix is the world’s digital infrastructure company®, shortening the path to connectivity to enable the innovations that enrich our work, life and planet.
• A place where tech thinkers and future builders turn bold ideas into breakthrough experiences, we welcome your unique perspective.
• Help us challenge assumptions, uncover bias, and remove barriers—because progress starts with fresh ideas. You’ll find belonging, purpose, and a team that welcomes you—because when you feel valued, you’re empowered to do your best work.

Job Summary

Equinix is building a new generation of AI infrastructure products, and we are looking for senior technical leaders to help shape them. As a Distinguished Engineer on the AI Infrastructure Products team, you will design, build, and launch the platforms and services that let customers run AI inference close to their data, clouds, and partners across Equinix’s global footprint.

This is a hands-on builder role. You will incubate new products and take them from zero to one, then harden them into reliable platforms that run at global scale. You will work across the stack, from container & service-based compute platforms and customer-facing APIs to the networking that connects AI workloads with Equinix Fabric and our broader interconnection portfolio.

As a Distinguished Engineer, you will be the senior-most technical authority for AI Infrastructure Products, setting the multi-year architecture vision and shaping how Equinix competes in AI infrastructure. You will operate at a company and industry level, recognized as an expert inside and outside Equinix.

Responsibilities

• Scope as a Distinguished Engineer
• Define and own the multi-year technical vision and reference architecture for AI infrastructure across Equinix, aligning product, platform, and network strategy
• Influence executive leadership and company-wide technology investments, and represent Equinix with strategic customers, partners, standards bodies, and industry forums
• Mentor and develop Senior Principal and Principal Engineers, and shape the technical talent bar for the organization

Build AI Infrastructure Products

• Design, build, and operate infrastructure and inference-related products and services, and the APIs customers use to consume them
• Write production-quality code, primarily in Go, and set a high bar for code quality, testing, and design reviews
• Design API-first, service-oriented architectures that are secure, well documented, and easy for customers and partners to integrate with
• Track the fast-moving inference ecosystem (serving frameworks, accelerators, model optimization) and bring the right technologies into our products
• Incubate and Launch Zero-to-One Products
• Take new ideas from concept to prototype to production launch, partnering closely with Product Management to shape requirements and define MVPs
• Move quickly in ambiguous problem spaces: run proofs of concept, make build-vs-buy calls, and turn early learnings into a durable architecture
• Help shape the product roadmap by translating customer needs and market shifts into technical strategy

Platform, Scale & Reliability

• Architect and run platforms and services that scale across Equinix’s global data center footprint
• Apply platform engineering, DevOps, and SRE practices (automation, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, observability, SLOs, incident response) so that what we launch stays reliable at scale
• Identify and resolve systemic reliability, performance, and cost issues across the platform

Networking & Interconnection

Integrate AI infrastructure products with Equinix Fabric, Network Edge, and other interconnection products so customers can securely connect AI workloads to clouds, partners, and their own environments

Partner with network architecture and product teams to design low-latency, resilient connectivity for distributed inference

Technical Leadership & Mentorship

• Lead architecture and design reviews, and author the design documents and decision records that guide the team
• Mentor and grow engineers, raise the technical bar, and help build a strong engineering culture on a new team
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, Security, Operations, and go-to-market teams, and engage directly with strategic customers and partners

Technical Expertise

• Strong experience building and operating distributed systems and services at scale
• Hands-on production experience with Kubernetes and the cloud-native ecosystem (containers, operators, Helm, service mesh, or similar)
• Proficiency in Go; experience with Python or other systems languages is a plus
• Deep experience designing APIs and service-oriented or microservices architectures
• Solid background in platform engineering, DevOps, or SRE, including CI/CD, infrastructure as code (e.g., Terraform), observability, and reliability engineering
• Experience with AI/ML inference (e.g., model serving frameworks such as vLLM, Triton, or KServe; GPU scheduling; performance tuning), or a strong, demonstrated interest in growing deep expertise in this space
• Working knowledge of networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, routing, BGP, load balancing, overlays) and how they apply to multisite, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments

Leadership & Experience

• Track record of taking new products or platforms from zero to one and through launch
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and driving decisions with incomplete information
• Proven ability to influence technical direction across teams without direct authority
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to explain complex technical concepts to technical and non-technical audiences
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with GPU infrastructure and accelerated computing (e.g., NVIDIA GPU Operator, CUDA ecosystem, RDMA/RoCE/InfiniBand)

Experience building on or integrating with interconnection or network-as-a-service platforms

Background at a cloud provider, data center, or infrastructure-as-a-service company

Open-source contributions (e.g., CNCF projects), conference talks, or published technical writing

The targeted pay range for this position in the following location is / locations are:

United States - Redwood City Office GHQ : 276,000 - 414,000 USD / Annual

United States - Denver Office DEO : 230,000 - 344,000 USD / Annual

United States - Dallas Infomart Office DAI : 230,000 - 344,000 USD / Annual

United States - Tampa Office TAO : 230,000 - 344,000 USD / Annual

United States - New York City Office NYO1 : 253,000 - 379,000 USD / Annual

Canada - Toronto Office TRO : 206,000 - 308,000 CAD / Annual

Our pay ranges reflect the minimum and maximum target for new hire pay for the full-time position determined by role, level, and location.The pay range shown is based on our compensation structure in place at the time of posting and may be updated periodically based on business needs. Individual pay is based on additional factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education and/or training.

The targeted pay range listed reflects the base pay only and does not include bonus, equity, or benefits. Employees are eligible for bonus, and equity may be offered depending on the position.

Equinix Benefits

As an employee, you become important to Equinix’s success. We ensure all your benefits are in line with our core values: competitive, inclusive, sustainable, connected and efficient. We keep them competitive within the current marketplace to ensure we’re providing you with the best package possible. So, wherever you are in your career and life, you’ll be able to enhance your experience and bring your whole self to work.

Employee Assistance Program: An Employee Assistance program is available to all employees.

US Benefits: - Insurance: You may enroll in health, life, disability and voluntary plans that are designed for you and your eligible family members. - Retirement: You and Equinix may contribute to a retirement plan to help you plan for your financial future. - Paid Time Off (PTO) and Paid Holidays: You will receive an accrued amount of PTO each pay period along with various paid holidays for you to rest and recharge. Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to specific plan or program terms.

Canada Core Benefits: - Insurance: You may enroll in healthcare coverage that is designed to complement the provincial healthcare system, along with life, disability and optional benefit plans that are designed for you and your eligible family members. - Retirement: You may also enroll in Equinix-sponsored retirement or savings plans: Defined Contribution Pension Plan (DCPP), Group Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) and Tax-Free Savings Plan (TSFA). - Vacation and Paid Holidays: Equinix offers both vacation and personal time, along with various paid holidays for you to rest and recharge.

Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits. Benefits are subject to specific plan or program terms, and to change at Equinix discretion.

Equinix is committed to ensuring that our employment process is open to all individuals, including those with a disability. If you are a qualified candidate and need assistance or an accommodation, please let us know by completing this form.

Equinix is an Equal Employment Opportunity and, in the U.S., an Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to unlawful consideration of race, color, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, place of birth, citizenship, sex, pregnancy / childbirth or related medical conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or domestic partnership status, age, veteran or military status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, political / organizational affiliation, status as a victim or family member of a victim of crime or abuse, or any other status protected by applicable law.

We use artificial intelligence in our hiring process. Learn more here.

This posting is a new position within our organization.

Additional Locations: Toronto Office TRO, New York City Office NYO1, Dallas Infomart Office DAI, Tampa, Denver