Performance Engineer, Hardware
Hybrid (Austin, TX), Hybrid (Palo Alto, CA)$200k - $420kFull-timePosted 2mo ago
About the role
Hardware performance engineer role focused on designing high-fidelity simulators and performance models for a custom AI accelerator/SoC, collaborating across RTL, compiler, IR, and software teams to optimize HW/SW co-design and validate pre-silicon and post-silicon performance.
Responsibilities
- Simulator Development: Design and implement high-performance and functional models of complex hardware using C++ and/or SystemC.
- Micro-architectural Exploration: Conduct "what-if" studies to evaluate architectural changes and their impact on IPC, MFU, TTFT, and total execution time.
- Workload Characterization: Analyze and profile AI kernels and software stacks to generate representative traces that stress-test the hardware models.
- HW/SW Co-Design: Collaborate with compiler and kernel teams to optimize software mapping to hardware, ensuring the architecture supports emerging algorithmic breakthroughs efficiently.
- Performance Correlation: Validate the performance model against RTL and pre-silicon emulators to ensure the model’s accuracy remains within strict tolerance levels.
- Bottleneck Analysis: Identify and quantify system-level bottlenecks, ranging from ILP limits to bandwidth throttling to utilization.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering or Computer Science, and 5+ years practical industry experience working with advanced process nodes (7nm or below).
- Expert proficiency in C/C++ or event-driven simulation environments like SystemC
- Hands-on experience with how compilers transform code (LLVM/GCC/XLA) and how high-performance kernels (CUDA/Triton) interact with the underlying ISA.
- Expert knowledge in Computer Architecture of at least one style of chip, including SoCs, CPUs, GPUs, or AI accelerators
- Experience with profiling hardware with performance counters, hardware profilers, and trace analysis tools to dissect application behavior.
- A highly collaborative mindset to push boundaries and co-design effectively with other engineers.
Skills
Required:C/C++SystemCLLVM/GCC/XLACUDA/TritonComputer ArchitectureProfiling & Performance Analysis
Benefits
- generous health, dental, and vision benefits
- unlimited PTO
- relocation support as needed
Last updated Sep 23, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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