Senior Engineering Manager, ML Platform

We're looking for a Senior Engineering Manager to lead our ML Platform Team - a growing team responsible for the foundational infrastructure that powers our machine learning work. This is a player-coach role: you'll set technical direction and contribute hands-on while building out the team and establishing the processes that will scale with it.The platform is in its early stages, with some foundations in place. You'll be joining at a pivotal moment - making architectural decisions that will shape how the team and the platform grow from 4 engineers today to a team of 10–12.What You'll Work OnInfrastructure LeadershipOwn the strategy, roadmap, and execution for GPU compute infrastructure, ensuring it scales to meet growing model training and fine-tuning demandsContribute directly to infrastructure design and implementation, particularly in the near term as the team growsDrive reliability, performance, and cost efficiency across distributed training clusters. Optimize existing and new training workloads to achieve scale.Evaluate and adopt new hardware (GPUs, TPUs, custom accelerators) and cloud/on-prem infrastructure as the team's needs evolveData Platform OwnershipOversee the design and operation of data storage, indexing, and retrieval systems that support large-scale dataset generationEnsure data pipelines are performant, fault-tolerant, and meet the quality and freshness requirements of ML teamsEstablish early-stage standards for data access, lineage, and governance — pragmatic and scalable, not over-engineeredShared Tooling & Developer ExperienceLead the development and maintenance of shared libraries and frameworks for data transformation pipelinesPartner with ML researchers and engineers to understand their workflows and translate them into reliable, reusable platform capabilitiesChampion developer productivity - reduce friction for teams consuming platform servicesTechnical Strategy & ArchitectureLay the architectural foundations of the platform, making decisions that are pragmatic today but designed to scale to a 10–12 person team and beyondMake key architectural decisions around compute orchestration (e.g. Kubernetes, Slurm, Ray), storage systems, and pipeline frameworksBalance short-term delivery with long-term platform health -knowing when to build, buy, or borrowCross-functional CollaborationAct as a technical partner to ML research, data engineering, and product teams - translating needs into platform prioritiesCommunicate roadmap, incidents, and technical tradeoffs clearly to both engineers and senior leadershipHelp ML teams become self-sufficient on the platform, reducing bottlenecks on the platform team itselfTeam Building & ManagementActively participate in hiring to grow the team from 4 to ~10–12 engineers, including defining roles and levelingMentor and develop engineers, establishing a team culture early that will hold as headcount scalesDefine lightweight but durable team processes - on-call rotations, incident response, and engineering standards that won't need to be rebuilt at scaleBe comfortable doing IC work yourself while simultaneously building the team's capacity to take it onWhat We're Looking For7–12 years of engineering experience, with at least 2–3 years in a formal management or tech lead capacityDemonstrated experience building or scaling a platform, infrastructure, or ML systems team from the ground upTechnical credibility in one or more of: GPU/distributed compute infrastructure, large-scale data storage and retrieval, or data pipeline frameworksExperience making foundational architectural decisions in an early-stage or greenfield environmentStrong cross-functional communication skills - able to translate between ML researchers, engineers, and senior leadershipComfortable with ambiguity; able to define the roadmap rather than just execute against oneA hands-on mindset - willing and able to write code, review designs, and debug production issues alongside your teamNice to HaveFamiliarity with compute orchestration frameworks such as Kubernetes, Slurm, or RayExperience with ML training workflows, dataset generation pipelines, or feature storesPrior experience growing a team through a hiring ramp (e.g. doubling or tripling headcount)The base pay range for this position is between $198,000.00 to $300,000.00 annually. Base pay will depend on multiple individualized factors, including, but not limited to, internal equity, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. This range represents a good-faith estimate of compensation at the time of posting. Boston Dynamics offers a generous Benefits package including medical, dental, vision, 401(k), paid time off, and an annual bonus structure. Additional details regarding these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer for employment.SummaryLocation: Waltham Office (POST)Type: Full time