Jobs / United States / Databricks
Staff Software Engineer, Model Serving
Databricks · 🇺🇸 San Francisco, California
Sponsorship verdict
Sponsorship possible
One solid signal, not two — worth applying, and worth asking about sponsorship early.
- Employer is on a government sponsor recordThe US Department of Labor certified 445 H-1B/E-3 labor condition applications for this employer between Oct 2025 and Jun 2026 (latest Jun 2026) — the step every H-1B hire needs first. USCIS also records 78 H-1B approvals in FY2023. Source: LCA disclosure data (US Department of Labor (OFLC)).
- The posting doesn’t mention sponsorshipSilence isn’t a refusal — ask the recruiter before investing much time.
- No salary bar for this routeH-1B has no fixed salary bar: the employer must pay at least the prevailing wage for the role and area. Cap-subject employers enter a lottery weighted by wage level. Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/29/2025-23853/weighted-selection-process-for-registrants-and-petitioners-seeking-to-file-cap-subject-h-1b, rules effective 2026-02-27.
- What Databricks paid sponsored hires in similar roles103 certified filings for “Software Engineer” (Software Developers) in CA: $158k–$191k, median $188k. Most were filed at wage level II (47%) — 2 lottery entries, ≈31% projected selection odds for cap-subject employers. Source: US Department of Labor LCA disclosure data (Oct 2025 – Jun 2026).
- Confirmed live todayWhen a source last listed this job as open.
US H-1B: cap-subject employers enter a lottery weighted by wage level — Level I gets 1 entry, Level IV gets 4 (DHS projected selection odds ≈15% at Level I to ≈61% at Level IV). Universities and non-profit research employers are cap-exempt. The $100,000 fee for new petitions from abroad is currently blocked by a court order (appeal pending).
A verdict summarises public evidence; it is not legal advice and never a guarantee — the employer and the immigration authority decide. Sign in to factor in where you can already work.
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Sponsor Radar — Databricks
The US Department of Labor certified 445 H-1B/E-3 labor condition applications for this employer between Oct 2025 and Jun 2026 (latest Jun 2026) — the step every H-1B hire needs first. USCIS also records 78 H-1B approvals in FY2023. Source: LCA disclosure data (US Department of Labor (OFLC)).
Past sponsorship or register membership never guarantees sponsorship for this vacancy or for you. Full Sponsor Radar for Databricks →
About the role
At Databricks, we are passionate about enabling data teams to solve the world's toughest problems — from making the next mode of transportation a reality to accelerating the development of medical breakthroughs. We do this by building and running the world's best data and AI infrastructure platform so our customers can use deep data insights to improve their business. Databricks’ Model Serving product provides enterprises with a unified, scalable, and governed platform to deploy and manage AI/ML models — from traditional ML to fine-tuned and proprietary large language models. It offers real-time, low-latency inference, governance, monitoring, and lineage. As AI adoption accelerates, Model Serving is a core pillar of the Databricks platform, enabling customers to operationalize models at scale with strong SLAs and cost efficiency. As a Staff Engineer, you’ll play a critical role in shaping both the product experience and the foundational infrastructure of Model Serving. You will design and build systems that enable high-throughput, low-latency inference across CPU and GPU workloads, influence architectural direction, and collaborate closely across platform, product, infrastructure, and research teams to deliver a world-class serving platform. The impact you will have: • Design and implement core systems and APIs that power Databricks Model Serving, ensuring scalability, reliability, and operational excellence. • Partner with product and engineering leadership to define the technical roadmap and long-term architecture for serving workloads. • Drive architectural decisions and trade-offs to optimize performance, throughput, autoscaling, and operational efficiency for CPU and GPU serving workloads. • Contribute directly to key components across the serving infrastructure — from model container builds and deployment workflows to runtime systems like routing, caching, observability, and intelligent autoscaling — ensuring smooth and efficient operations at scale. • Collaborate cross-functionally with product, platform, and research teams to translate customer needs into reliable and performant systems. • Lead technical initiatives that improve latency, availability, and cost-effectiveness across both customer-facing and foundational serving layers. • Establish best practices for code quality, testing, and operational readiness, and mentor other engineers through design reviews and technical guidance. • Represent the team in cross-organizational technical discussions and influence Databricks’ broader AI platform strategy. What we look for: • 10+ years of experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems. • Deep expertise in model serving, inference systems, and related infrastructure (e.g., routing, scheduling, autoscaling, and observability). • Strong foundation in algorithms, data structures, and system design as applied to large-scale, low-latency serving systems. • Proven ability to deliver technically complex, high-impact initiatives that create measurable customer or business value. • Experience leading architecture for large-scale, performance-sensitive CPU/GPU inference systems. • Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across teams in fast-moving environments. • Strategic and product-oriented mindset with the ability to align technical execution with long-term vision. • Passion for mentoring, growing engineers, and fostering technical excellence. Pay Range Transparency Databricks is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The pay range(s) for this role is listed below and represents the expected salary range for non-commissionable roles or on-target earnings for commissionable roles. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to ea