Substack is building a new economic engine for culture, giving the brightest, most interesting, and most creative people on the internet the power of their own publishing platform. The terms of our culture should not be set by gate-keeping legacy media or chaos-fueling social media, but by the people who make and participate in that culture. Substack's model, based on direct subscriptions, has fueled an explosion of independent publishing. It empowers creators with economic autonomy, creative ownership, and a direct connection to their most engaged audiences.As a Systems Engineer on Substack's ML Team, you will be responsible for building and maintaining the infrastructure that powers our machine learning capabilities. You will focus on the systems, pipelines, and platforms that enable our ML team to develop, deploy, and scale machine learning solutions effectively. This role offers an exciting opportunity to architect the foundational ML infrastructure that will support Substack's growing AI/ML initiatives.ResponsibilitiesDesign and build scalable ML infrastructure including model serving systems, feature stores, and training pipelinesDevelop and maintain robust data pipelines for ML workflows, from data ingestion to model deploymentImplement MLOps best practices including CI/CD for ML models, monitoring, and automated retraining pipelinesBuild and optimize model serving infrastructure to support real-time and batch inference at scaleCollaborate with ML engineers and data scientists to understand infrastructure requirements and translate them into reliable systemsMonitor and optimize ML system performance, reliability, and cost efficiencyEstablish infrastructure standards and tooling to accelerate ML development workflowsOwn the deployment and operational aspects of ML models in productionRequirements5+ years of relevant experience building and maintaining data/ML infrastructure systemsStrong programming skills in Python or TypeScript and experience with infrastructure-as-code toolsExperience with ML infrastructure components such as feature stores, model registries, and serving systemsSolid understanding of distributed systems, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), and cloud platformsExperience with data pipeline orchestration tools (e.g., Airflow, Prefect, or similar)Independent and autonomous. We're too small to micromanage, and expect that every person at the company owns their work and can be a leaderHold yourself and others to a high standard when working on production systemsEnjoy collaboration with a diverse group of stakeholders while bringing your own unique experience and background to the teamNice to haveExperience with ML serving frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow Serving, MLflow, Ray Serve)Knowledge of monitoring and observability tools for ML systemsExperience with cloud ML platforms (AWS SageMaker, Modal, or similar)Understanding of ML model lifecycle management and MLOps practicesExperience with consumer web applications at scaleFamiliarity with ML frameworks like PyTorch and TensorflowFamiliarity with JavaScript/TypeScriptSubstack’s compensation package includes a market-competitive salary, equity, and exceptional benefits. Our cash compensation salary range for this role is $200,00-250,000. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above.Substack is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or transgender status), age, national origin, veteran or disability status. We’re seeking people passionate about enabling independent expression and building a better business model for creators. If you want to see what media, communities, and content can become when unmoored from advertising models, and you have the skills and experience to contribute, we’d love to meet you.Please see our Privacy Notice for details regarding Substack's collection and use of personal information relating to the application and recruitment process by clicking .