Coupa employees grouped together on the left and sitting on the right.
Coupa Logo

Coupa

Principal Engineer, AI/ML Architecture - 11310

Posted Yesterday
Be an Early Applicant
Hybrid
Foster City, CA, USA
241K-313K Annually
Expert/Leader
Hybrid
Foster City, CA, USA
241K-313K Annually
Expert/Leader
The Principal Engineer, AI/ML Architecture will define the technical direction for Coupa's AI platform, focusing on model training, evaluation, safety standards, and mentoring a team of ML and data engineers.
The summary above was generated by AI
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 estimated pay range for this role is $241,000 - $313,200

The starting salary for the successful candidate will be based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as skills, experience, and geographic location.

#LI-HYBRID
#LI-AA2

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.

Similar Jobs at Coupa

15 Hours Ago
In-Office or Remote
127K-140K Annually
Mid level
127K-140K Annually
Mid level
Artificial Intelligence • Fintech • Information Technology • Logistics • Payments • Business Intelligence • Generative AI
The Account Executive will drive sales of Coupa's Invoice-to-Pay and Expense products, engaging senior finance leaders and managing complex sales cycles for new and existing accounts.
Top Skills: Ap AutomationB2B SaasExpense ManagementFintechInvoice-To-PayTravel Platforms
Yesterday
Hybrid
Foster City, CA, USA
222K-288K Annually
Senior level
222K-288K Annually
Senior level
Artificial Intelligence • Fintech • Information Technology • Logistics • Payments • Business Intelligence • Generative AI
The Sr. Director of AI Platform Engineering will lead the expansion of Coupa's AI capabilities, managing teams and partnerships to enhance model training and data strategies.
Top Skills: AICloud InfrastructureData EngineeringMl
Yesterday
In-Office or Remote
7 Locations
149K-194K Annually
Senior level
149K-194K Annually
Senior level
Artificial Intelligence • Fintech • Information Technology • Logistics • Payments • Business Intelligence • Generative AI
The Lead Technical Architect will implement solutions for customers, oversee integration projects, enhance customer experience, and mentor new team members.
Top Skills: NetSuiteOraclePeoplesoftRestful ApisSAPSftpSoap

What you need to know about the San Francisco Tech Scene

San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area attracts more startup funding than any other region in the world. Home to Stanford University and UC Berkeley, leading VC firms and several of the world’s most valuable companies, the Bay Area is the place to go for anyone looking to make it big in the tech industry. That said, San Francisco has a lot to offer beyond technology thanks to a thriving art and music scene, excellent food and a short drive to several of the country’s most beautiful recreational areas.

Key Facts About San Francisco Tech

  • Number of Tech Workers: 365,500; 13.9% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
  • Major Tech Employers: Google, Apple, Salesforce, Meta
  • Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, fintech, consumer technology, software
  • Funding Landscape: $50.5 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
  • Notable Investors: Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins
  • Research Centers and Universities: Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; University of San Francisco; Santa Clara University; Ames Research Center; Center for AI Safety; California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Sign up now Access later

Create Free Account

Please log in or sign up to report this job.

Create Free Account