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Serving Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

They are seeking an ML Model Serving Engineer to enhance their serving layer with various LLM, speech, and vision models, while collaborating with infrastructure and training engineers to optimize ...

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Serving information

See California salary details

$5

$15

$30

How much do serving jobs pay per hour?

As of Jul 28, 2026, the average hourly pay for serving in California is $15.09, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $10.19 and $17.07 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.

Who gets paid more, host or server?

In the serving industry, servers typically earn higher wages than hosts because they rely more on tips based on their sales and customer service skills. Hosts usually receive a fixed hourly wage and do not earn tips, making their overall pay generally lower than that of servers, especially in busy establishments with high tipping culture.

What is the difference between Serving vs Waitstaff?

AspectServingWaitstaff
CredentialsNo formal certifications typically requiredNo formal certifications typically required
Work EnvironmentRestaurants, cafes, catering eventsRestaurants, cafes, catering events
Industry UsageCommonly used in hospitality and food serviceCommonly used in hospitality and food service
Search & ComparisonOften searched as ServingOften searched as Waitstaff

Serving and Waitstaff are terms used interchangeably in the food service industry. Both roles involve taking orders, serving food and beverages, and ensuring customer satisfaction in restaurants and cafes. While 'Serving' is a broader term, 'Waitstaff' specifically refers to the staff members performing these duties. The responsibilities, work environment, and industry usage are very similar, making these terms often interchangeable in job searches and industry discussions.

What jobs pay 4000 a week without a degree?

In serving roles, high-paying positions such as experienced bartenders, restaurant managers, or event catering coordinators can earn around $4,000 weekly through tips, commissions, or salaries, especially in high-volume or upscale establishments. These roles often require strong customer service skills, experience, and sometimes certifications, but typically do not require a college degree.

What are serving jobs?

Serving jobs typically refer to positions in the food and beverage industry where individuals are responsible for taking orders, delivering food and drinks, and providing customer service in restaurants, cafes, bars, and similar establishments. Servers are often the main point of contact between customers and the business, ensuring a pleasant dining experience. These roles require good communication skills, the ability to multitask, and a friendly attitude. Tips often make up a significant portion of a server's income, making customer satisfaction particularly important.

What are some common challenges servers face during busy shifts and how can they effectively manage them?

During peak hours, servers often juggle multiple tables, special requests, and time-sensitive orders, which can be stressful. Effective strategies include staying organized, communicating clearly with both the kitchen and fellow servers, and prioritizing tasks to ensure prompt service. Developing strong multitasking skills and remaining calm under pressure are also essential. Many restaurants use team-based approaches, so supporting colleagues and asking for help when needed can make busy shifts more manageable.

Can you make $100,000 as a server?

Earning $100,000 as a server is possible in high-volume or upscale restaurants where tips can significantly increase income, especially in areas with high dining demand. Typically, servers rely on a combination of base wages and tips, with top earners in certain markets or with extensive experience reaching or exceeding this amount annually.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a Server, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Server, you need strong customer service skills, basic math abilities, and usually a high school diploma or equivalent. Familiarity with point-of-sale (POS) systems and knowledge of food safety standards are commonly required. Outstanding communication, multitasking, and problem-solving skills help servers deliver a positive dining experience. These skills and qualities are crucial for ensuring customer satisfaction, efficient service, and smooth restaurant operations.

How do you get a serving job?

To get a serving job, you typically need to apply at restaurants or food service establishments, either in person or online. Having good communication skills, a friendly attitude, and some experience in customer service can improve your chances; some positions may require a food handler's permit or alcohol service certification. Preparing a resume and being available for flexible hours also helps in the application process.
What are the most commonly searched types of Serving jobs in California? The most popular types of Serving jobs in California are:
What cities in California are hiring for Serving jobs? Cities in California with the most Serving job openings:
Infographic showing various Serving job openings in California as of July 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% As Needed, 76% Full Time, 20% Part Time, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 96% Physical, 1% Hybrid, and 3% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $31,391 per year, or $15.1 per hour.

Software Engineer, ML Serving

Rime Labs

San Francisco, CA

Full-time

Posted 10 days ago


Job description

Rime is a foundation modeling company that builds voice AI for enterprises running customer experiences at scale. Our models are purpose-built for high-volume conversational deployments, engineered for the accuracy, performance, and deployment flexibility that production environments actually demand.

We started from a different premise than the rest of the field: build voice AI for human connection, not slop. Before we trained a single model, we built our own corpus: full-duplex, studio-quality conversational speech of normal people, recorded and annotated by linguists. It's why our models are unparalleled in naturalism, and it's why enterprises pick Rime when pilots need to make it to production.

Role Overview

We're hiring a Software Engineer to own the serving infrastructure that connects Rime's inference engines to the world. This role sits at the intersection of ML systems and cloud infrastructure — you'll work directly on model inference and cloud infrastructure to build, harden, and scale the systems that stream voice at real-time latency. As Rime moves toward its next-generation architecture, you'll be a core architect of how our models get served.

What You'll Own

  • Architecture and implementation of Rime's TTS serving infrastructure, from GPU-backed inference engines to the API surface.

  • Model optimization from a single-node to disaggregated fleet serving.

  • Compatibility with different NVIDIA hardwares from Hopper to Blackwell and beyond for on-prem and cloud deployments.

  • Continuous integration and deployment workflows for the model serving pipeline.

  • Site reliability: on-call rotation, monitoring, alerting, and observability across the serving stack.

  • Resource provision, cost management across our GPU fleet.

What We're Looking For

  • Hands-on experience with real-time multinode ML serving infrastructure — ML serving framework experience: NVIDIA Dynamo/Triton, vLLM, SGLang, or equivalent.

  • Experience with distributed or disaggregated model serving (Tensor Parallel, Pipeline Parallel, or equivalent).

  • Strong cloud infrastructure fundamentals: Linux internals, networking, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).

  • IaC experience — Terraform, Packer, or comparable. You should have opinions about how to do this right.

  • On-call is part of the job. You treat production reliability as a shared responsibility.

Nice to Have

  • Experience with multinode training (DDP, FSDP, etc.).

  • Experience with gRPC or other bidirectional binary streaming protocols.

  • Experience with audio streaming and related technologies (WebRTC, WebSockets, etc.).

  • Experience with a multilingual monorepo where you pick the best language out of merit more than personal experience.

  • Experience with multi-cloud infrastructures (AWS, GCP, OCI, etc.).

  • Comfort with configuration management tooling (Ansible, Chef, Puppet, or similar).

  • SRE, DevOps, or platform engineering background at a startup.

  • Experience at an early-stage company.

Why Join Rime

  • Build the serving infrastructure behind a category-defining voice AI company from the ground up.

  • You will bring in experience that no one else currently has at the company: you can help us set the vision.

  • Direct collaboration with the inference, platform, and ML teams — no handoff culture.

  • The systems you build determine what experiences our customers can deploy at scale.

  • Meaningful equity upside at an early stage.

  • High ownership, high standards, low bureaucracy.

  • SF / Bay Area.

At Rime, we...

  • Are outliers

  • Cut through the hype to focus on the craft

  • Move fast with agency and freedom

  • Maintain a growth mindset, finding joy in the struggle

  • Do the right things, knowing that it'll lead to making money

    If that sounds like you too, you'll be a great fit for Rime!