Software Engineer (ML systems)

About Pi School

Pi School is a research and innovation company born from two decades of building AI for real-world impact. Founded in 2017 by Marco Trombetti and Isabelle Andrieu, it is backed by 27 years of AI heritage through Translated, the founders' company and a leader in the language industry worldwide.

Pi School embeds AI research expertise within organisations tackling complex challenges, contributing to open science and bridging the gap between academia and institutions. To date, it has delivered more than 100 AI solutions, trained over 250 engineers through the Pi School of AI programme and secured more than €7M in EU grants.

Pi School leads and contributes to research initiatives. These include DVPS and Meetween, funded by the European Commission, and EVE and SatcomLLM, funded by the European Space Agency.

We are looking for a Software Engineer (ML systems) to work in our office in Rome.
Pi School’s AI research team is involved in several research projects with the European Space Agency and the European Commission, in the intersection of cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence, LLMs, and multimodal models. Some of these are also deployed and get regular users. We are looking for a Software Engineer capable of contributing to designing, deploying, and maintaining scalable, production-grade ML systems, from backend services and CI/CD to performance optimisation and open-source-ready engineering practices.

Project specifics

Some of the projects you will be working on:

• EVE is being developed by Pi School, with support from Mistral and Imperative Space for ESA Φ-lab. EVE is a Large Language Model for Earth Observation, born from Φ-lab's ultimate vision to develop an Earth Observation Digital Assistant capable of answering information and knowledge queries in natural language, providing accurate and validated content to support decision-making and exploration. Discover more at eve.philab.esa.int.
• Meetween aims to build a multimodal foundation model for speeches focused on videoconferencing use cases funded by the European Commission. Discover more at meetween.eu/.
• DVPS is a Horizon Europe project, coordinated by Translated with 20 partners across 9 countries, advancing multimodal foundation models that learn from language, vision and real-world sensor data. It is building an open-source toolkit for developing these models, with applications in language, health and the environment, trained on Europe’s largest HPC infrastructure. Discover more at https://dvps.translated.com/.

Responsibilities

You will be part of Pi School's AI Research team full-time, focusing on various technologies, including Large Language Models, as well as Machine and Deep Learning. In this role, you will:

• Develop scalable backend services and APIs for model serving and integration into user-facing applications
• Own CI/CD, testing, deployment, and monitoring of ML systems in cloud or HPC environments
• Optimise performance across the stack (data pipelines, GPU workloads, inference latency, cost efficiency)
• Collaborate with researchers to translate experimental prototypes into robust, maintainable production systems
• Contribute to engineering best practices (code quality, documentation, reproducibility, versioning)
• Support open-source releases with production-ready packaging and documentation

Requirements

• Excellent programming skills in Python
• Hands-on experience with:
  • Cloud Services like AWS/GCP or platforms like RunPod/Lambda Labs
  • Model serving frameworks like FastAPI, BentoML, vLLM, Triton
  • Experience using CI/CD tools
  • Experience with relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL) and basic data modelling
  • Solid understanding of REST API design and microservices architecture
  • Familiarity with authentication/authorisation mechanisms (e.g., JWT, OAuth)
  • Track record of deploying ML systems to production and managing publicly accessible APIs at scale
  • Solid understanding of networking concepts, including proxies, reverse proxies, load balancing, and secure endpoint exposure
• Bonus if you have experience with:
  • Familiarity with Docker and Linux, including running GPU experiments
  • LLM-specific end-to-end frameworks like Langchain or NVIDIA NeMo
  • Experience with ML/DL frameworks, especially Pytorch
  • Experience with an end-to-end LLMOps pipeline
• Excellent proficiency in English

Our offer

Based on a standard level of experience, the offered salary typically ranges between €30.000,00 and €40.000,00. The actual package depends on factors such as location, scope of responsibilities, and performance. Compensation generally grows quickly as experience leads to greater contributions. Exceptionally strong candidates may be offered salaries above this range to acknowledge their higher potential impact.

Starting date: as soon as possible

Appplication deadline: 31 December 2026

Our office

Pi School is hosted at Pi Campus, a working environment immersed in nature. Six luxury villas in Rome (Italy) have been converted into functional offices to foster talent growth. Pi Campus is also a venture firm created by Translated to reinvest part of its profits into promising AI startups.

Benefits and Perks

Our working environment is both relaxed and intense. We are passionate about our mission, and our work is highly regarded in our industry.

• Fresh fruit and snacks
• Access to the pool and Turkish bath
• Sports activities: gym and pilates
• Free time in between your tasks to work on your personal projects
• Access to the Pi Campus parties and gatherings

Learn more about our company: https://picampus-school.com/

Diversity

At Pi School, we proudly embrace and celebrate each individual's unique qualities in our team, regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other differences. We recognise that these diverse perspectives empower us to overcome challenges, foster innovation, and drive excellence. As an inclusive and equal opportunity employer, we are committed to cultivating an environment where everyone feels welcome, valued, and supported to achieve their full potential.