About this role.
Thumbtack is hiring an early-career Software Engineer to build and evolve AI/ML infrastructure supporting production GenAI and traditional machine-learning workloads. The role spans backend services, execution infrastructure, model-tool integrations, training and serving systems, data and feature workflows, CI/CD, orchestration, deployment, and evaluation tooling. The engineer will partner with product and platform teams as well as senior engineers to deliver scalable platform capabilities with measurable business impact. Candidates need 1–3 years of software engineering experience, strong computer-science fundamentals, proficiency in a major programming language, and familiarity with databases such as Postgres or DynamoDB. The environment is fast-moving and ambiguous, requiring proactive learning, sound technical judgment, and effective cross-functional collaboration.
Role DNA
A quick view of the complexity, pace, ownership and collaboration implied by the job description.
Job Complexity
4/5Pace & Pressure
4/5Autonomy Level
3/5Communication Load
4/5Salary analysis
Estimated compensation compared with the broader CA market for similar roles.
Core skills
Skills and capabilities most closely associated with this opportunity.
Sample interview questions
I would explain the system’s users, interfaces, operational requirements, and adoption plan. I would cite measurable outcomes such as latency, error rate, deployment frequency, availability, cost, or time saved for downstream teams, along with the monitoring and rollback mechanisms used.
I would separate data ingestion, validation, training or prompt/model configuration, evaluation, artifact versioning, deployment, and monitoring into reproducible stages. I would include automated quality gates, lineage, rollback support, security controls, and production metrics for performance, cost, latency, and model quality.
I would assess workload characteristics, latency and throughput needs, hardware support, scaling behavior, observability, security, operational maturity, integration effort, cost, and developer experience. I would validate assumptions through a small benchmark or prototype before committing to a broadly adopted platform choice.
I use AI tools to accelerate exploration, boilerplate, test generation, and documentation, but I treat their output as untrusted. I verify logic against requirements, review security and edge cases, run tests and static analysis, and refine the implementation so that accountability remains with me.
I begin by clarifying the customer or business outcome, identifying constraints, and proposing a small set of explicit decisions. I align stakeholders on milestones and ownership, deliver an incremental first version, communicate risks early, and use feedback and operational data to guide subsequent iterations.
Thumbtack helps millions of people confidently care for their homes.
Thumbtack is the one app you need to take care of and improve your home — from personalized guidance to AI tools and a best-in-class hiring experience. Every day in every county of the U.S., people turn to Thumbtack to complete urgent repairs, seasonal maintenance and bigger improvements. We help homeowners know which projects to do, when to do them and who to hire from our growing community of 300,000 local service businesses. If making an impact inspires you, join us. Imagine what we’ll build together.
About the Machine Learning Infrastructure Team
At Thumbtack, our challenges span a wide range of areas, including search, recommendations, matchmaking, pricing, safety, content generation, fraud detection, and more. The ML Infrastructure team is responsible for centralizing, standardizing and evolving AI/ML infrastructure that enables these experiences. We empower product engineering teams by providing scalable, high-performance systems that drive AI innovation at scale. To read more about some of the engineering challenges at Thumbtack, visit our engineering blog.
Challenge
As a Software Engineer on the ML Infrastructure team, you will work closely with product and platform engineering teams to build and evolve core AI platform capabilities. You will help design and improve systems that allow teams to develop, run, and scale GenAI-powered applications in production. Your work will directly support AI-driven experiences used by millions of customers and pros across the Thumbtack ecosystem.
What you’ll do
Build and evolve core AI platform capabilities that enable teams to develop, run, and scale GenAI-powered applications across Thumbtack.
Contribute to the design, development, and deployment of scalable tools and infrastructure to support the efforts of our applied scientists, including traditional ML model training and serving systems, feature and data workflows, CI/CD, orchestration, deployment, and evaluation tooling.
Work hands on across the stack, from backend services and execution infrastructure to integrations with AI models and tooling.
Partner with senior engineers to evaluate next-generation AI infrastructure frameworks and tools that help product teams harness advances in AI.
Drive projects to completion with a strong focus on business impact and measurable outcomes.
Solve complex technical problems and stay up to date with advances in this rapidly evolving space.
In order to be successful, you must bring
1 to 3 years of professional software engineering experience.
Strong fundamentals in data structures, algorithms, and software design.
Proficiency in at least one major programming language, and the ability to work across multiple languages. Our primary stack includes Go and Python.
Experience working with relational or NoSQL databases such as Postgres or DynamoDB.
Demonstrated ability to use AI coding tools in day-to-day workflows and validate, critique, and refine AI-generated output
Comfort operating in a fast-paced environment with a certain level of ambiguity, especially when learning and picking up new technologies when projects require it.
You operate with a bias to action, quickly learning what is needed and taking decisive steps to move work forward in ambiguous, fast-paced environments.
Expected Salary Range
For candidates living in Ontario and British Columbia, the expected salary range for the role is currently $123,300 – $159,500.
Actual offered salaries will vary and will be based on various factors, such as calibrated job level, qualifications, skills, competencies, and proficiency for the role.
Note: Thumbtack uses AI tools to support our resume screening process. However, our Recruiting team’s expertise and judgment guide hiring decisions.
Actual offered salaries will vary and will be based on various factors, such as calibrated job level, qualifications, skills, competencies, and proficiency for the role.
Thumbtack embraces diversity. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and do not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, age, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, military or veteran status, genetic information, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, provincial, state, or local law. We also will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, consistent with applicable law.
Thumbtack is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation for a medical condition or disability during any part of the application process, please contact: recruitingops@thumbtack.com.
For information about how Thumbtack collects, uses, and shares personal information about job applicants, please see our Job Applicant Privacy Policy.
We put as much craftsmanship into candidate safety as we do into the hiring experience itself. While scammers may try to impersonate our team, we’ll never ask you for money, banking info, or SSNs during hiring. Check out our blueprint on how to spot the fakes.
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