Senior Software Engineer

About SurveyMonkey: SurveyMonkey is a premier, internationally recognized web feedback pioneer, cloud questionnaire innovator, and artificial intelligence platform leader on an absolute mission to capture, analyze, and optimize digital insights for teams worldwide. As the world’s most popular platform for surveys and smart forms, SurveyMonkey unifies robust analytical capabilities with intuitive, user-loved design to support diverse enterprise use cases spanning customer experience mapping, employee engagement tracking, and multi-tier market research. Trusted by millions of organizations—ranging from high-velocity startups to prominent Fortune 500 companies—SurveyMonkey’s infrastructure has answered over 100 billion questions to date. Driven by an uncompromised commitment to inclusion and curiosity, the global corporate collective embeds built-in research expertise and cloud automation to turn real-time data inputs into inspired, market-defining business decisions confidently.

Position Overview

We are seeking a highly sophisticated, systems-minded Senior Software Engineer II to join our core global Machine Learning Platform (MLP) Solutions division in a full-time remote capacity within Italy. Reporting directly to the Senior Engineering Manager, you will serve as an authoritative subject matter expert driving the architectural design and deployment of secure, high-performance, and exceptionally scalable pipelines that govern the end-to-end lifecycle of our machine learning models. Operating at the specialized intersection of Data Science and DevOps, you will claim individual technical accountability for building the "connective tissue" that empowers SurveyMonkey’s central product portfolio to leverage cutting-edge intelligence fields. This high-agency seat demands a full-stack ML craftsman who commands expert-level Python roots, optimizes cloud infrastructure for extreme multi-tenant data loads, and provides intentional technical leadership to junior engineers on the team.

Key Responsibilities

• End-to-End ML Platform Architecture: Design, implement, and maintain secure, highly scalable pipelines and automated runtime environments governing the full lifecycle of machine learning models from data ingestion to deployment.
• High-Scale Pipeline Engineering: Build and scale robust, distributed machine learning systems and data processing streams natively using Python Scripting alongside specialized mathematical libraries including Pandas, NumPy, PyTorch, and Hugging Face transformers.
• AWS Cloud Infrastructure Governance: Architect, provision, and optimize high-volume cloud infrastructure blocks natively leveraging AWS services to ensure absolute platform reuse, multi-tenant resource optimization, and low-latency throughput.
• Microservices Mesh Integration: Partner closely with core application software engineers to integrate, test, and monitor live machine learning model services across SurveyMonkey’s extensive microservices architecture framework.
• Advanced NLP and Generative AI Triaging: Act as the principal technical authority guiding the operationalization of next-generation NLP algorithms, Large Language Models (LLMs), and real-time classification models for spam detection, content ranking, and app personalization.
• Telemetry and Failure Mode Analysis: Incorporate sophisticated performance telemetry and real-time observability markers into the core platform to perform root-cause analysis on complex failure modes, ensuring reliability for millions of daily survey responses.
• Internal Feature Consulting: Serve as an authoritative in-house engineering consultant to distributed product feature squads, educating and influencing cross-functional leaders regarding ML tooling and infrastructure selections.
• Rigorous Code Mentorship: Champion high standards in code reviews, technical documentation, and architectural best practices, delivering structured feedback to cultivate the professional growth of junior builders on the MLP squad.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• 8+ years of verified professional history running advanced machine learning software development, ML infrastructure engineering, MLOps orchestration, or large-scale data systems delivery.
• Proven, production-tested track record successfully designing, provisioning, and maintaining high-throughput machine learning environments natively within the AWS public cloud.
• Expert-tier development proficiency coding complex data frameworks natively utilizing **Python Scripting** and high-scale big data processing clusters like PySpark.
• Deep, authoritative technical command of foundational machine learning concepts (supervised and unsupervised learning) coupled with structural operational knowledge of Large Language Models (LLMs) and **NLP** patterns.
• Technical comfort operating and troubleshooting comfortably inside Unix/Linux operating system environments to deploy real-time consumer-facing cloud solutions.
• A Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in Computer Science, Data Science, Software Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, or a closely related quantitative STEM field of study (a Master’s degree is considered an asset).
• Outstanding verbal and written communication mechanics in fluent English, showing an absolute capacity to distill abstract data architectures into clear guidance for diverse engineering and leadership audiences.
• Location Context: Parameters open to qualified machine learning engineers based permanently anywhere within Italy to execute 100% remotely from home under global virtual alignment setups.

Preferred Strategic Indicators (Nice to Have)

• Prior experience operating MLOps pipelines or big-data text sanitization layers for a prominent global B2B SaaS technology vendor or international consumer survey application.
• Familiarity with distributed version control workflows, container isolation models, and automated continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines optimized for ML modeling.
• An outcome-driven, curious startup mindset that thrives in ambiguity, bringing structured order to undefined system needs without waiting for external permission.
• Prior experience speaking at global engineering meetups, authoring developer blogs, or contributing to open-source python packages.

What We Offer

• The exceptional professional canvas to directly direct, code-shape, and deploy the automated machine learning platforms and data pipelines driving real-time intelligence for over 100 billion data questions globally.
• Highly competitive, capability-calibrated baseline salary structures supplemented by transparent pathways for long-term international career progression and technical leadership track expansion.
• Profound work-from-home remote parameters offering superior lifestyle flexibility, flexible scheduling boundaries, and complete workspace trust inside Italy.
• Immediate eligibility to access customized corporate lifestyle benefits, including the specialized **CHOICE Fund** program to support employee wellness and home office setups.
• Access to accelerated professional development funds, fully supported cloud architecture certifications, and international company get-togethers throughout the calendar year to sustain close human alignment.