Senior Principal Model Bring-up Engineer
SambaNova Systems5 hours ago
Base Salary
$208k - $312k/yr
Responsibilities
- Bring up new LLM architectures end to end, including model adaptation, checkpoint conversion, multi-chip and multi-host mapping, compilation, numerical validation, and production serving.
- Build shared inference modules for continuous batching, paged KV pooling, prompt caching, chunked and incremental prefill, dynamic tensor shapes, speculative decoding, FP8/FP4, tensor parallelism, and expert parallelism.
- Debug issues at the intersection of models, compilers, and hardware, and land fixes in the appropriate shared component.
- Own a model family from first compile through serving and integration into the shared stack.
- Turn one-model fixes into reusable modules and measurably shorten a long engineering loop for the team.
Requirements
- B.S. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
- 8+ years of industry experience in ML systems, inference, or compiler engineering.
- Strong Python and PyTorch internals experience, plus some C++ experience.
- Deep knowledge of transformer inference, including KV caching, GQA, sliding-window attention, MoE routing, prefill versus decode, batching, and speculative decoding.
- Hands-on experience with accelerator bring-up, ML compilers such as MLIR, XLA, TVM, Triton, or torch-mlir, or inference engines such as vLLM, SGLang, or TensorRT-LLM.
- Rigor in numerical debugging and comfort with Bazel, Slurm, and large monorepos.
- Clear writing and evidence-backed claims.
- Preferred qualifications include an M.S. or Ph.D., dataflow or spatial compiler experience, kernel DSL experience, FP8/FP4 inference, Mamba and SSM experience, expert parallelism, multi-agent AI engineering workflows, and open-source inference or compiler contributions.
Benefits
- Base salary range of $208,000–$312,000 USD, plus equity and benefits.
- For US-based full-time employees, SambaNova covers 95% of employee medical insurance premiums and 77% of dependent premiums, with an employer-contributed HSA.
- Dental, vision, short- and long-term disability, basic and voluntary life, AD&D, and flexible spending account options are offered.
- Well-being benefits include Headspace, Gympass+, One Medical, counseling services, and an Employee Assistance Program.
Categories
About SambaNova Systems
SambaNova Systems builds full-stack AI infrastructure—custom accelerator chips, systems, and foundation models—delivered as on-prem appliances and cloud APIs for enterprises, governments, and data centers. Its offerings include the SambaNova Suite, Samba Cloud, and on-prem SambaStack, powered by its Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU) architecture, including the SN40L chip. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in San Jose, California, the company is privately held.