Pay
Higher than most similar jobs
$241K–$337K against $166K–$240K, the middle half of what similar US postings state.
From 1,394 postings in the last year. Stated ranges, not salaries paid.
Principal Engineer, AI/ML Architecture
Foster City, CA, United States
Open 6 months, first seen by us 191 days ago- Pay
USD 241,000–337,400/year — pay source
Salary 241,000 – 337,400 USD per year #LI-HYBRID
Read the full posting- Work setting
- Not stated
- Employment
- Not stated
What you’ll work on
Full postingDefine architecture for model training, evaluation, and serving
Evaluate and select open-weight, commercial, and hybrid model approaches
Design evaluation frameworks for Coupa's task categories
Design RAG systems extending existing structured knowledge retrieval
Write code, review PRs, and prototype approaches early on
From the employer’s posting
Define the architecture for model training, evaluation, and serving across Coupa's AI platform.
Evaluate and select model approaches (open-weight, commercial, and hybrid) against enterprise accuracy and cost requirements.
Design evaluation frameworks that measure model quality on Coupa's specific task categories.
Design retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems that extend our existing RAG infrastructure with structured knowledge retrieval.
Write code, review PRs, and prototype approaches, especially in the early phases.
Posting record
Report an errorOpen 6 monthsWe first saw this posting 191 days ago and it is still up. Roles open this long are often slow to fill or kept open to collect applications.
- Status in our records
- Live
- First seen by us
- May 5, 2026191 days ago
- Recorded sightings
- 216
- Last seen by us
- Nov 12, 2026
- Employer says posted
- Mar 17, 2026
These dates show when we found the posting. Check the employer’s website to confirm it is still accepting applications.
How this job compares
Time since we first saw it
Day 191
Up longer than most. Similar jobs usually come down between day 8 and day 76.
Well past Coupa’s usual: its jobs come down by about day 27.
From 5,323 similar postings that came down, and 15 of Coupa’s. Coming down is not always a hire.
Coupa is hiring
4 open jobs
Open jobs by the week we first saw them, last 12 weeks.
- Takes jobs down quickly
See how this role fits your experience
Add your resume and we’ll mark which of these tools you already use, and point out anything in the posting that could rule you out.
- Python
- PyTorch
Where the posting names them
- Experience designing and running custom evaluation suites for LLMs. - Proficiency in Python, PyTorch, and ML infrastructure tooling. - Advanced degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or equivalent practical experience.
Your next step
Complete your application on jobs.lever.co. The employer’s form will show what is required.
Applying through Lever
- No account needed: one form, and Lever reads your resume into the profile recruiters search.
Already applied? Track this application
Demand for ML Engineer roles
New ML Engineer postings at the employers we follow are up 10% over the last 6 weeks compared with the 6 before.
Each bar is one week of new postings. The darkest bars are the last 6 weeks.
Counted from the hiring pages we’ve followed for at least five weeks, so employers we add don’t look like growth. Updated weekly.
About the role
We file this job under ML Engineer, by the work the posting describes.
ML engineers put machine learning models into products. They write the code that trains, ships, serves and monitors models so a recommendation or prediction works for real users.
Postings ask for strong Python and software engineering, a framework such as PyTorch, cloud services, and more and more often experience with large language models.
A data scientist often works out which model to build; an ML engineer makes it run reliably in production.
US government figures for computer and information research scientists
- Median yearly pay, May 2025
- $140,300
- Expected change, 2025 to 2035
- 21.8% more jobsagainst 3.5% for all jobs
The government has no code for ML engineers, so these figures are for the closest group, computer and information research scientists.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025) and Employment Projections (2025 to 2035). Occupation code 15-1221.
Job description
Coupa makes margins multiply through its community-generated AI and industry-leading total spend management platform for businesses large and small. Coupa AI is informed by trillions of dollars of direct and indirect spend data across a global network of 10M+ buyers and suppliers. We empower you with the ability to predict, prescribe, and automate smarter, more profitable business decisions to improve operating margins.
Why join Coupa?
- Pioneering Technology: At Coupa, we're at the forefront of innovation, leveraging the latest technology to empower our customers with greater efficiency and visibility in their spend.
- Collaborative Culture: We value collaboration and teamwork, and our culture is driven by transparency, openness, and a shared commitment to excellence.
- Global Impact: Join a company where your work has a global, measurable impact on our clients, the business, and each other.
Learn more on Life at Coupa blog and hear from our employees about their experiences working at Coupa.
The Impact of a Principal Engineer, AI/ML Architecture at Coupa:
Coupa's AI platform powers production agents, conversational AI (Navi), customer-built agents (Agent Studio), and a suite of ML models for classification, fraud detection, and supplier intelligence. The Principal Engineer, AI/ML Architecture will define the technical direction for the next generation of these capabilities, designing how we train, evaluate, and serve models that are deeply tuned to enterprise spend management. Reporting to the Sr. Director, you will be hands-on in architecture and prototyping while guiding a growing team of ML and data engineers.
What You'll Do:
- Define the architecture for model training, evaluation, and serving across Coupa's AI platform.
- Evaluate and select model approaches (open-weight, commercial, and hybrid) against enterprise accuracy and cost requirements.
- Design evaluation frameworks that measure model quality on Coupa's specific task categories.
- Drive technical partnership evaluations with AI infrastructure and model providers.
- Architect training data pipelines, including synthetic data generation and quality validation.
- Design retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems that extend our existing RAG infrastructure with structured knowledge retrieval.
- Establish technical standards for model safety, tenant data isolation, and responsible AI.
- Write code, review PRs, and prototype approaches, especially in the early phases.
- Mentor and guide ML and data engineers across US and India.
- Collaborate with product, existing AI platform, and cloud operations teams.
What You Will Bring to Coupa:
- 15+ years of software engineering experience, with 5+ years focused on ML/AI systems.
- Demonstrated experience training or fine-tuning large language models. Must have shipped a fine-tuned or domain-adapted model to production.
- Deep knowledge of transformer architectures, training optimization (LoRA, QLoRA, PEFT, RLHF, DPO), and inference serving.
- Experience with distributed training on GPU clusters.
- Strong understanding of RAG architectures, vector search, embedding models, and knowledge graph integration.
- Hands-on experience with cloud AI/ML services (model hosting, managed training, or equivalent).
- Experience designing and running custom evaluation suites for LLMs.
- Proficiency in Python, PyTorch, and ML infrastructure tooling.
- Advanced degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or equivalent practical experience.
- Experience with enterprise B2B SaaS platforms preferred.
The successful candidate’s starting salary will be determined based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as skills, experience, and geographic location within the state.
Salary
241,000 – 337,400 USD per year
#LI-HYBRID
#LI-AA2
The successful candidate’s starting salary will be determined based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as skills, experience, and geographic location.
At Coupa, we are 100% committed to creating and nurturing an environment that supports your physical, mental, and community well-being. We offer a comprehensive suite of benefits designed to help you and your family thrive:
Global Well-Being Perks (For All Employees Globally)
- Global Wellness Days: Enjoy two designated, company-wide paid wellness days off each year (typically the first Friday in March and the last Friday in September) so the entire global team can unplug, step away, and recharge together .
- Birthday Time-Off: Celebrate your day! Coupa provides a paid day off on your birthday or another day of your choice within your birthday month .
- Volunteer Time Off (VTO): Giving back is in our DNA. We offer 40 hours of paid VTO annually to support the community initiatives and volunteer programs you are passionate about .
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Access free, confidential, 24/7/365 counseling and resources for emotional support, work-life solutions, financial advice, legal guidance, and support for new parents .
- Business Travel Protection: Travel with peace of mind. Zurich Travel Assist provides medical, safety, pre-trip planning, and emergency support during any business travel .
- Referral Bonus Program: Share the Coupa experience! Receive generous monetary referral bonuses when you successfully refer talented friends or acquaintances who are hired into open roles .
Please note: In addition to these global well-being perks, Coupa offers highly competitive, location-specific benefits packages (which include comprehensive medical/dental insurance, retirement/pension plans, and life or accident protection) tailored to your primary work location. Your recruiter will walk you through the specific regional benefits package for this role during the interview process.
Coupa complies with relevant laws and regulations regarding equal opportunity and offers a welcoming and inclusive work environment. Decisions related to hiring, compensation, training, or evaluating performance are made fairly, and we provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified candidates and employees.
Please be advised that inquiries or resumes from recruiters will not be accepted.
By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you have read Coupa’s Privacy Policy and understand that Coupa receives/collects your application, including your personal data, for the purposes of managing Coupa's ongoing recruitment and placement activities, including for employment purposes in the event of a successful application and for notification of future job opportunities if you did not succeed the first time. You will find more details about how your application is processed, the purposes of processing, and how long we retain your application in our Privacy Policy.
Employment type
Director
Source details
Source notes
Source excerptsSelected passages from the saved posting. Check the full description for conditions and exceptions.
- Pay
Salary 241,000 – 337,400 USD per year #LI-HYBRID
- Location & working pattern
Foster City, CA, United States
- Define the architecture for model training, evaluation, and serving across Coupa's AI platform. - Evaluate and select model approaches (open-weight, commercial, and hybrid) against enterprise accuracy and cost requirements. - Design evaluation frameworks that measure model quality on Coupa's specific task categories.
More source context
241,000 – 337,400 USD per year #LI-HYBRID #LI-AA2
- Work authorization
No clear work-authorization passage found. Eligibility is unconfirmed.