AI Performance Engineer - New Grad
SambaNova Systems
$131,200 - $196,800 / year
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Description
SambaNova is a leader in next-generation AI infrastructure, delivering a full-stack inference platform for customers worldwide. At the core of SambaNova's technology is the RDU (Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit) — a chip built on a dataflow architecture rather than the traditional GPU model. Its decode performance is especially strong for agentic workloads like multi-turn agents, code generation, and long-running applications. RDUs are packaged into SambaRack, rack-scale hardware that lets customers deploy state-of-the-art models with better performance, greater energy efficiency, and faster time to value.
About the Team
The AI Performance team brings up and optimizes foundation models such as DeepSeek, Llama, Qwen, and GPT OSS on SambaNova's dataflow platform. We profile and tune models across the compiler, runtime, and hardware layers to improve inference throughput and latency.
About the Role
As a new grad AI Performance Engineer, you'll bring up new open source models on the SambaNova stack and work to make them run faster. You'll profile model execution, find bottlenecks, and apply optimizations such as quantization, kernel fusion, and improved scheduling with the compiler, runtime, and hardware teams.
Responsibilities
- Bring up new foundation models on the SambaNova platform using our software stack
- Profile model performance across the compiler, runtime, and hardware layers
- Identify bottlenecks and propose dataflow or scheduling optimizations for single-node and distributed systems
- Apply techniques from recent research in quantization, scheduling, and memory optimization
- Benchmark throughput and latency and track performance changes across releases
- Work with the machine learning, compiler, runtime, and hardware teams to ship performance improvements into SambaNova products
Required Qualifications
- B.S. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field
- Strong programming skills in Python or C++
- Understanding of algorithms, data structures, and numerical computing
- Experience with PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX
- Experience with inference frameworks such as vLLM, TensorRT, or SGLang
- GPU programming experience with CUDA or Triton
Preferred Qualifications
- M.S. or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field
- Experience with LLM training or inference
- Familiarity with quantization, graph optimization, kernel fusion, or model partitioning
- Knowledge of memory hierarchy, caching, and scheduling for large model execution
- Internship or research experience in ML systems or performance optimization
- Publications or open source contributions in ML systems
Base Salary Range:
Submission Guidelines
Please note that in order to be considered an applicant for any position at SambaNova Systems, you must submit an application form for each position for which you believe you are qualified.
EEO Policy
SambaNova Systems is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard basis of age (40 and over), color, disability, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, national origin/ancestry, race, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding), sexual orientation, and any other applicable status protected by federal, state, or local laws.
Benefits Summary for US-Based, Full-Time Employment Positions
SambaNova offers a competitive total rewards package, including the base salary, plus equity and benefits. We cover 95% premium coverage for employee medical insurance, and 77% premium coverage for dependents and offer a Health Savings Account (HSA) with employer contribution. We also offer Dental, Vision, Short/Long term Disability, Basic Life, Voluntary Life, and AD&D insurance plans in addition to Flexible Spending Account (FSA) options like Health Care, Limited Purpose, and Dependent Care. Our library of well-being benefits available to you and your dependents includes a full subscription to Headspace, Gympass+ membership with access to physical gyms, One Medical membership, counseling services with an Employee Assistance Program, and much more.
Benefits
- health insurance
- stock options
About this role
SambaNova's AI Performance team optimizes foundation models on a novel dataflow architecture—a fundamentally different approach to AI inference than traditional GPUs. As a new grad in this role, you'd work on bringing cutting-edge open source models like DeepSeek and Llama onto SambaNova's platform and making them run faster. The work spans the full stack: profiling execution across compiler, runtime, and hardware layers, identifying bottlenecks, and applying optimizations like quantization and kernel fusion. You'd collaborate closely with machine learning, compiler, runtime, and hardware teams to ship real performance improvements into production.
This role suits someone with strong fundamentals in Python or C++, solid understanding of algorithms and numerical computing, and hands-on experience with at least one ML framework (PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX) and inference frameworks like vLLM or TensorRT. GPU programming experience with CUDA or Triton is expected. If you've worked with LLM inference, model quantization, or ML systems optimization before—whether through internships, research, or open source—you'd have a meaningful edge.
The position is based in Austin, in-office, and offers a base salary of $131,200 to $196,800 plus equity and a comprehensive benefits package including 95% medical premium coverage, dental, vision, and wellness perks like Headspace and One Medical.
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$131,200 to $196,800 per year
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