Staff ML Engineer

Role: Staff ML Engineer

Location: San Jose, CA, USA

Job Description

About the role

We're looking for an ML engineer who works across the full stack from model to silicon — comfortable optimizing training and inference performance on GPU/AI-accelerator infrastructure, building or tuning models, and adapting model and inference-engine design to the constraints of the underlying chip and its NPU. You'll move fluidly between algorithm work, systems-level software, and infrastructure work, closing the loop end-to-end rather than owning just one layer of the stack. This is a rare chance to work the full cycle of AI silicon, from model down to chip — something most ML engineers at large companies never get access to.

What you'll do

• Optimize training and inference performance across GPU and AI-accelerator infrastructure, including MLOps pipelines
• Design, train, and evaluate ML models (deep learning, LLM, CV, or recommendation systems) and take them into production
• Harden and extend NPU cores (e.g. building on an open RVV/tensor core like CoralNPU) into production silicon
• Build or optimize inference engines and serving runtimes against real hardware constraints — latency, memory, and power
• Work below the application layer where needed — BMC firmware, embedded Linux, or RTOS (e.g. Zephyr) — so AI features run reliably on real systems
• Build automated test/verification harnesses that close the loop for AI-assisted RTL/DV, hardware bring-up, or manufacturing test
• Apply ML to security — AI-driven log/intrusion analysis, AI-assisted penetration testing, or firmware/hardware security work
• Collaborate closely with RTL/hardware, firmware, and QA teams to ship AI features end-to-end, from training through deployment and monitoring

Qualifications

What we're looking for

• 7+ years of hands-on AI/ML experience; Master's required, PhD preferred
• Hands-on experience with AI/ML infrastructure and performance — GPU clusters, distributed training, inference-serving optimization, MLOps pipelines
• Model / algorithm development experience — designing, training, and evaluating ML models
• Experience taking models into production — feature engineering, data pipelines, deployment
• AI chip / hardware-aware ML experience — optimizing inference engines for a specific chip, or adapting model architecture/quantization to chip constraints
• Deep, hands-on expertise in at least 2 of the following 5 specialty areas — we don't expect all five:
• NPU / AI-accelerator — hardening or extending an NPU core into production silicon, mapping models onto MAC/tensor-engine constraints, or NPU-aware RTL/DV work
• Systems / Sys-level software — BMC firmware, embedded Linux, RTOS (e.g. Zephyr), or other low-level system software
• Inference engine / runtime — built or materially optimized an inference engine or serving runtime against real hardware constraints
• Test / verification harness — built an automated harness that closes a loop, e.g. an agent-driven RTL/DV test runner or a hardware bring-up / MFG test harness
• Cyber security — AI-driven log/intrusion analysis, AI-assisted penetration testing, or firmware/hardware security