Sr. Staff Engineer, IP Runtime
Tenstorrent
$100,000 - $500,000 / year
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Description
Tenstorrent is leading the industry on cutting-edge AI technology, revolutionizing performance expectations, ease of use, and cost efficiency. With AI redefining the computing paradigm, solutions must evolve to unify innovations in software models, compilers, platforms, networking, and semiconductors. Our diverse team of technologists have developed a high performance RISC-V CPU from scratch, and share a passion for AI and a deep desire to build the best AI platform possible. We value collaboration, curiosity, and a commitment to solving hard problems. We are growing our team and looking for contributors of all seniorities.
You will work at the hardware/software boundary to define how those hardware blocks are initialized, coordinated, and used by the runtime. You will determine how workloads are dispatched, scheduled, synchronized, and executed across the accelerator, while solving complex performance problems through implementation, bring-up, and debugging.
This role is hybrid and based in Toronto, ON or Austin, TX.
We welcome candidates at various experience levels for this role. During the interview process, candidates will be assessed for the appropriate level, and offers will align with that level, which may differ from the one in this posting.
Who You Are
- An expert C or C++ engineer with a track record of designing and delivering complex, performance-critical systems.
- Experienced working close to hardware in low-level, embedded, bare-metal, or accelerator environments and translating hardware specifications into reliable software behavior.
- Strong in runtime fundamentals, including command execution, scheduling, synchronization, memory movement, resource management, and parallelism.
- Skilled at debugging and optimizing systems end-to-end, especially at the hardware/software boundary.
- A technical leader who collaborates effectively across hardware, firmware, compiler, and systems teams and mentors other engineers.
What We Need
- Define the runtime architecture and implementation that controls execution, scheduling, synchronization, and resource management across Tenstorrent’s custom processor, accelerator, memory, and data-movement IP.
- Build low-level runtime components that initialize hardware IP, dispatch work to processor and accelerator engines, coordinate dependencies, and manage resources efficiently.
- Design runtime interfaces and data-movement paths that make memory access, synchronization, and execution efficient and predictable.
- Analyze bottlenecks across the runtime and hardware/software stack, then drive improvements in latency, throughput, scalability, and reliability.
- Influence the direction of the runtime stack, engage directly with customers and field-facing teams, and translate real-world workload needs into runtime improvements while remaining hands-on with design, coding, performance analysis, bring-up, and debugging.
What You Will Learn
- How runtime software exposes and controls custom silicon IP, from hardware initialization and execution control through bring-up, performance analysis, and optimization.
- How custom silicon IP blocks—including RISC-V processor cores, accelerator engines, memory systems, data-movement logic, and interconnects—work together as a complete execution platform.
- Advanced techniques for execution control, synchronization, scheduling, and performance optimization on massively parallel hardware.
- How runtime and hardware co-evolve to improve model throughput, efficiency, and scalability.
Compensation for all engineers at Tenstorrent ranges from $100k - $500k including base and variable compensation targets. Experience, skills, education, background and location all impact the actual offer made.
Tenstorrent offers a highly competitive compensation package and benefits, and we are an equal opportunity employer.
This offer of employment is contingent upon the applicant being eligible to access U.S. export-controlled technology. Due to U.S. export laws, including those codified in the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR), the Company is required to ensure compliance with these laws when transferring technology to nationals of certain countries (such as EAR Country Groups D:1, E1, and E2). These requirements apply to persons located in the U.S. and all countries outside the U.S. As the position offered will have direct and/or indirect access to information, systems, or technologies subject to these laws, the offer may be contingent upon your citizenship/permanent residency status or ability to obtain prior license approval from the U.S. Commerce Department or applicable federal agency. If employment is not possible due to U.S. export laws, any offer of employment will be rescinded.
About this role
Tenstorrent is building custom AI accelerator hardware from the ground up, and this role sits at the critical junction where that silicon meets software. As Sr. Staff Engineer for IP Runtime, you'll own the runtime architecture that controls execution, scheduling, synchronization, and resource management across the company's custom processor and accelerator IP. This means designing low-level components that initialize hardware, dispatch work across engines, coordinate dependencies, and optimize memory movement—then debugging and improving the entire stack end-to-end as real workloads expose bottlenecks.
You'll need deep expertise in C or C++ and a proven track record working close to hardware in embedded, bare-metal, or accelerator environments. The role demands strong fundamentals in runtime design, command execution, scheduling, and parallelism, paired with the ability to translate hardware specifications into reliable software behavior. Beyond hands-on coding and performance analysis, you'll influence the runtime direction, collaborate across hardware, firmware, and compiler teams, mentor other engineers, and engage directly with customers to translate their workload needs back into platform improvements.
This is a hybrid position based in Austin, Texas or Toronto, Ontario. Compensation ranges from $100k to $500k depending on experience and skills. Note that the role requires eligibility to access U.S. export-controlled technology, which may restrict candidacy based on citizenship or residency status.
How this employer is doing
solid
- Recently Raised Funding
In the news
Tenstorrent - 2026 Funding Rounds & List of Investors, Tracxn
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Pay for this role
$100,000 to $500,000 per year
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