Senior Staff Infrastructure Engineer
Who We Are:
At TwelveLabs, we are pioneering the development of cutting-edge multimodal foundation models that have the ability to comprehend videos just like humans do. Our models have redefined the standards in video-language modeling, empowering us with more intuitive and far-reaching capabilities, and fundamentally transforming the way we interact with and analyze various forms of media.
With a remarkable $107 million in Seed and Series A funding, our company is backed by top-tier venture capital firms such as NVIDIA’s NVentures, NEA, Radical Ventures, and Index Ventures, and prominent AI visionaries and founders such as Fei-Fei Li, Silvio Savarese, Alexandr Wang, and more. Headquartered in San Francisco, with an influential APAC presence in Seoul, our global footprint underscores our commitment to driving worldwide innovation.
We are a global company that values the uniqueness of each person’s journey. It is the differences in our cultural, educational, and life experiences that allow us to constantly challenge the status quo. We are looking for individuals who are motivated by our mission and eager to make an impact as we push the bounds of technology to transform the world. Join us as we revolutionize video understanding and multimodal AI.
About the Role
As a Sr. Staff Infrastructure Engineer at Twelve Labs, you will combine technical leadership with hands-on execution to build the systems that power our multimodal foundation models. You’ll design and evolve a scalable, secure, and high-performance infrastructure that supports large-scale AI workloads across cloud and on-prem environments.
This role requires strong technical judgment, comfort diving into low-level systems when needed, and the ability to shape infrastructure direction by building, operating, and improving real systems. You’ll influence decisions through technical depth, execution, and results — not hierarchy — in a fast-moving environment
In this role, you will
Architect and evolve cloud and hybrid infrastructure by combining hands-on implementation with technical leadership.
Lead the design of AI/ML infrastructure components and work directly on critical paths when depth is required.
Establish infrastructure standards and abstractions, while staying close to the systems in production.
Collaborate closely with MLE, Data, Backend teams to translate needs into scalable systems, unblocking teams through both design guidance and direct execution when needed.
Own key tradeoffs across reliability, cost, and velocity, making pragmatic decisions in a startup environment.
You may be a good fit if you have:
10+ years of experience building and operating production infrastructure, with clear ownership of critical systems.
Strong hands-on experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS), Kubernetes, and distributed systems in real-world environments.
Strong fundamentals in OS, networking, storage, and compute
Experience with GPU-based compute, performance tuning, and capacity planning for ML workloads.
Deep expertise in Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, and observability (e.g., Terraform, GitHub Actions, Ansible, Prometheus, logging/metrics).
A track record of combining technical leadership with hands-on execution — you stay close to the system while helping raise the bar for others.
Comfort operating in an early-stage, fast-moving environment, making decisions with incomplete information and iterating quickly.
Even if there are a few checkboxes that aren’t ticked through your prior experience, we still encourage you to apply! If you are a 0-1 achiever, a ferocious learner, and a kind and fun team player who motivates others, you will find a home at TwelveLabs.
Interviews
All virtual interviews will be conducted via video. To support identity verification and interview integrity, candidates may be asked to present a government-issued ID. Candidates may also be requested to disable video filters and use a clear, unobstructed background to facilitate effective communication.
Benefits and Perks
🤝 An open and inclusive culture and work environment.
🧑💻 Work closely with a collaborative, mission-driven team on cutting-edge AI technology.
🦷 Full health, dental, and vision benefits.
✈️ Flexible PTO and parental leave policy. Office closed the week of Christmas and New Years.
🛂 VISA support (such as H1B and OPT transfer for US employees).