Principal Machine Learning Engineer

Firefly Foundry is Adobe's enterprise managed-service offering for custom multimedia generative AI — deep-tuned image, video, and 3D models built on each customer's IP, paired with creative production workflows and a media-intelligence layer, and deployed across new and existing Adobe surfaces and products, including Firefly, Photoshop, Illustrator, Express, Stock, and Premiere.   We are hiring a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to serve as the technical lead for our GenAI Services area. This is not a model-training or research role — it is the senior-most hands-on engineering authority over how our generative models are architected,   optimized , and served at enterprise scale. You will set the inference architecture and technical standards that a growing organization of engineers builds against, co-develop and optimize the inference code that makes those systems fast and cost-efficient, and architect the APIs and product backend that let Adobe's first-party and third-party models reach both internal applications and external plugin integrations. Where the Director owns the multi-year technical strategy, headcount, and company roadmap for the org, you own the architecture, technical depth, and hands-on execution that make that strategy real — spanning multiple engineering teams without owning their people management.   What this role owns   The technical architecture for composing,   optimizing , and serving heterogeneous generative model pipelines — LLMs, diffusion and transformer-based image/video models, RAG and retrieval systems, multi-turn agentic flows, and 3D/mesh pipelines — across the GenAI Services area.   The optimization strategy for inference performance: latency, throughput, and cost-to-serve across model families and GPU fleets.   The system design standards for pipeline composition, multi-tenant serving, and the product backend/API and plugin surface that integrates   first-party   and third-party generative models into Adobe's flagship products.   Technical direction across multiple engineering teams as the principal authority on architecture and design — a cross-team scope, distinct from the Director's org-wide roadmap and   management   ownership.   Who you will partner with   Applied Science   — to translate research models and emerging techniques into production-grade inference architecture.   Director, ML Engineering and ML Engineering leadership   —   to align   technical architecture with organizational strategy and priorities.   Product Managers and TPMs   — to define and deliver against the roadmap for GenAI services and APIs.   Firefly Foundry Studio and AI Platform   — to translate creative production workflows into performant services and to   align on   shared infrastructure and serving primitives.

Lead the development of core GenAI services and APIs that integrate a wide range of first-party and third-party generative models into Adobe's flagship products.   Architect ML   serving   workflows for enterprise-scale model customization, deployment, and ecosystem integration — including externalizable, self-serve fine-tuning flows.   Co-develop and   optimize   GPU-accelerated inference pipelines — prioritizing latency, throughput, scalability, and reliability — using tools such as   PyTorch , CUDA, Triton, and   TensorRT .   Design and   architect   the product backend and plugin ecosystem that lets internal applications and external integrations consume Firefly Foundry's model services.   Provide hands-on technical leadership: guide engineers through architecture, design, implementation, and best practices, and mentor a growing organization of ML engineers.   Research and evaluate emerging inference and   MLOps   technologies — serving runtimes, quantization , GPU   scheduling — to improve engineering velocity and system performance.   Lead design reviews and set technical