Senior Sales Engineer – AI Inference & LLM Cloud at Nebius in Columbus
Career & Market Insight
A High-Leverage Role at the Frontier of AI Infrastructure
This Senior Sales Engineer position at Nebius sits at one of the most strategically valuable intersections in tech right now: AI inference infrastructure. As LLM deployment scales rapidly, the demand for engineers who can bridge deep technical knowledge with commercial strategy is enormous — and this role builds exactly that skillset.
Skills you'll develop:
- Deep expertise in LLM inference optimization (vLLM, TensorRT-LLM, SGLang) — among the most in-demand AI skills in 2024–2025
- GPU economics and cost modeling for AI workloads — increasingly critical as companies optimize AI spend
- Enterprise deal strategy and technical pre-sales at senior level
- Cross-functional influence across Product, Engineering, and Sales
Compensation signals: No salary is disclosed, but Senior Sales Engineers in AI/cloud infrastructure in Europe typically earn €120,000–€180,000+ OTE (base + commission), with US-equivalent roles reaching $180,000–$250,000 OTE. Nebius is Nasdaq-listed (NBIS), so equity upside is likely part of the package — worth clarifying in interviews.
Green flags: Nebius is a well-funded, Nasdaq-listed company (1,500+ employees) with genuine engineering depth — not a typical startup with vague AI branding. The role has real strategic scope, not just demo-delivery.
Watch for: The "fast moving" culture signal and breadth of responsibilities suggest high output expectations. Candidates should clarify headcount of the SE team and sales quotas before accepting.
About Nebius:
Nebius is leading a new era in cloud infrastructure for the global AI economy. We are building a full-stack AI cloud platform that supports developers and enterprises from data and model training through to production deployment, without the cost and complexity of building large in-house AI/ML infrastructure.
Built by engineers, for engineers. From large-scale GPU orchestration to inference optimization, we own the hard problems across compute, storage, networking and applied AI.
Listed on Nasdaq (NBIS) and headquartered in Amsterdam, we have a global footprint with R&D hubs across Europe, the UK, North America and Israel. Our team of 1,500+ includes hundreds of engineers with deep expertise across hardware, software and AI R&D.
The Role
We are building a high-performance AI inference platform for developer-native teams running latency- and cost-sensitive workloads at scale.
In AI infrastructure, PoC success does not guarantee production success. This role ensures that what we commit to is scalable, efficient, and aligned with platform strategy.
We are looking for a Senior Sales Engineer to become a foundational technical partner to our customers and a force multiplier for Sales and Engineering. You will shape complex AI workloads from first discovery through production feasibility validation, ensuring technical rigor, economic viability, and scalable architecture decisions.
You will operate at the intersection of customer ambition, engineering reality, and commercial growth, influencing:
- Revenue quality
- Engineering focus
- Product evolution
- Customer trust at scale
You're welcome to work remotely from Europe.
Your Responsibilities
Strategic Technical Discovery
- Lead deep technical discovery with engineering teams and technical founders
- Understand model requirements, traffic expectations, latency constraints, GPU economics, and system dependencies
- Translate customer ambition into production-feasible architectures
- Identify hidden technical risks early
Commercial Acceleration
- Partner tightly with Sales on strategic deals
- Influence deal strategy through architectural clarity
- Prevent misaligned commitments before engineering allocation
- Increase PoC-to-production conversion by ensuring technical realism
PoC Architecture & Validation
- Define measurable success criteria (latency, TTFT, throughput, cost envelope)
- Classify workload complexity and required optimization depth
- Align appropriate resources (ML Solution Architects, engineering, GPU capacity, etc.)
- Drive structured Go / No-Go decisions
- Prevent uncontrolled customization or hidden R&D
Pattern Recognition & Platform Leverage
- Identify recurring configuration patterns across customers
- Quantify demand for advanced optimizations (quantization, speculative decoding, etc.)
- Surface structured insights to Product and Engineering
- Help evolve platform capabilities based on real workload data
What We Expect You to Have
- Deep understanding of AI inference systems and GPU-backed infrastructure
- Experience with LLM workloads and performance-sensitive environments
- Experience with inference frameworks and libraries (e.g., vLLM, SGLang, TensorRT-LLM)
- Ability to reason about latency, throughput, cost, and architecture tradeoffs
- Strong customer presence with engineering-first organizations
- Comfort challenging assumptions and pushing back constructively
- Commercial awareness – you understand that engineering time is a strategic resource
Preferred Technical Stack
- Programming Languages: Python
- Frameworks and Libraries: vLLM, SGLang, TensorRT-LLM, OpenAI/Anthropic SDKs
- Frameworks for Agentic Pipelines: LangChain / LangSmith / smolagents / equivalent
- API and Web Frameworks: FastAPI, Flask
- MLOps and DevOps Tools: Kubernetes (K8s), Docker, Git
- Cloud Platforms: AWS (SageMaker, Bedrock), GCP (Vertex AI), Azure (Azure ML)
What Success Looks Like
- Strategic deals are technically sound before engineering engagement
- PoCs are clearly scoped and economically justified
- Engineering capacity is allocated predictably
- Conversion to production improves
- Customers view you as a trusted architectural advisor
Benefits & Perks
- Competitive compensation
- Career growth and learning opportunities
- Flexibility and ownership
- Collaborative and innovative culture
- Opportunity to work on impactful AI projects
- International environment and talented teams
What's it like to work at Nebius:
Fast moving · Bold thinking · Constant growth · Meaningful impact · Trust and real ownership · Opportunity to shape the future of AI
Equal Opportunity Statement:
Nebius is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace and to providing equal employment opportunities in all aspects of employment. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, ancestry, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
Applicants must be authorized to work in the country in which they apply and will be required to provide proof of employment eligibility as a condition of hire.
If you need accommodations during the application process, please let us know.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this role fully remote or does it require office attendance?
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