Member of Technical Staff, Model Efficiency

Cohere; Quebec; Remote; CAD 250,000 - 535,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Weekly lunch stipend

Health and dental benefits

RRSP matching / Pension

Parental Leave top-up

Enrichment benefits

Education stipend

6 weeks paid vacation

Offsite travel budget

Home office stipend

Job summary

Cohere is seeking an experienced engineer to join the Model Efficiency team, focusing on building reliable ML systems and optimizing LLM inference. You will improve the inference stack, reduce latency, and boost throughput across diverse workloads.

The role offers remote-friendly work with opportunities across global offices. Ideal candidates have 5+ years of high-performance coding experience in C++ or Python and familiarity with LLM ecosystems and CUDA optimizations.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience writing high-performance, production-quality code.
• Strong programming skills in C++ or Python (Rust/Go also welcome).
• Experience with large language models and familiarity with the LLM inference ecosystem (e.g., vLLM, SGLang, etc.).
• Ability to diagnose and resolve performance bottlenecks across the model execution stack.
• A strong bias for action — you ship fast, measure impact, and iterate.

Responsibilities

• As an engineer on this team, you’ll work across the inference stack to improve core performance metrics by diving deep into model execution, identifying bottlenecks, and developing innovative optimizations.
• You’ll collaborate closely with modeling and systems teams to experiment, measure, and ship improvements that meaningfully accelerate inference.
• As the team evolves, you’ll have opportunities to build expertise in advanced performance techniques, including GPU/CUDA optimizations, kernel-level improvements, and model execution strategies for MoE and large-scale architectures.

Skills

C++

Python

LLM inference

Performance profiling

Bias for action

Tools

CUDA

vLLM

Job description

Who are we?

Cohere is the leading security-first enterprise AI company. We build
cutting-edge foundation AI models and end-to-end products that are designed to
solve real-world business problems.

We’re training and deploying frontier models for enterprises who are building AI
systems. We believe that our work is instrumental to the widespread adoption of
AI and we are looking for folks that want to be part of that.

We obsess over what we build. Each one of us is responsible for contributing to
increasing the capabilities of our models and the value they drive for our
customers. Cohere is a team of researchers, engineers, designers, and more, who
are all passionate about their craft.

We are a global technology company headquartered in Toronto with key offices in
London, New York City, San Francisco, Montreal, Paris, Berlin and Seoul. Join
us!

Role Overview

Our team is a fast-growing group of researchers and engineers focused on
building reliable ML systems and pushing the boundaries of LLM inference
efficiency. We develop techniques that improve how models execute in production,
driving lower latency, higher throughput, and consistent quality across diverse
workloads.

Please Note: We have offices in Toronto, Montreal, San Francisco, New York,
Paris, Seoul and London. We embrace a remote-friendly environment, and as part
of this approach, we strategically distribute teams based on interests,
expertise, and time zones to promote collaboration and flexibility. You'll find
the Model Efficiency team concentrated in the EST and PST time zones, these are
our preferred locations.

Job Responsibilities

As an engineer on this team, you’ll work across the inference stack to improve
core performance metrics by diving deep into model execution, identifying
bottlenecks, and developing innovative optimizations. You’ll collaborate closely
with modeling and systems teams to experiment, measure, and ship improvements
that meaningfully accelerate inference. As the team evolves, you’ll have
opportunities to build expertise in advanced performance techniques, including
GPU/CUDA optimizations, kernel-level improvements, and model execution
strategies for MoE and large-scale architectures.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience writing high-performance, production-quality code


• Strong programming skills in C++ or Python (Rust/Go also welcome)


• Experience working with large language models and familiarity with the LLM
  inference ecosystem (e.g., vLLM, SGLang, etc.)


• Ability to diagnose and resolve performance bottlenecks across the model
  execution stack


• A strong bias for action — you ship fast, measure impact, and iterate

It’s a big plus if you have experience with:

• GPU programming, CUDA, or low-level systems optimization


• Language modeling with transformers (MoE, speculative decoding, KV-cache
  optimizations)


• Scaling performance-critical distributed systems (e.g., computation, search,
  storage)

Working Location:

This role can be based remotely or from one of our office locations listed on
the job description - there is no minimum in-office qualification requirement.
We care most about hiring exceptional people regardless of locations, though
please check the location listed on the posting for guidance around the core
time zone or working hours alignment expected for the role.

Full-Time Employees At Cohere Enjoy These Perks

• A weekly lunch stipend of $75/£75 or equivalent in your local currency for
  lunch.


• Full health and dental benefits, including a separate budget for mental
  health.


• RRSP matching, 401K, Pension Scheme.


• 100% Parental Leave top-up for up to 6 months, for either parent.


• Annual enrichment benefits:


• Arts & culture, fitness/wellness, quality time, and a workspace improvement credit.


• Education & learning stipend for conferences, courses, and coaching.


• 6 weeks of paid vacation (30 working days!)


• Budget for traveling to other offices if you are remote, plus an annual
  company offsite.

How And Where We Work

• Cohere is remote-friendly, but we also have offices in Toronto, London, New
  York City, San Francisco, Montreal, Paris, Berlin and Seoul with more opening
  soon.


• For those in the office: a daily lunch program, plenty of snacks, and regular
  community and social events.


• For those not near an office: a co-working benefit so you can work alongside
  oothers in your city.


• Everyone receives a $500 home office stipend to set up your workspace
  properly.

If any of the above doesn’t line up exactly with your experience, we still
encourage you to apply.

We strive to create an inclusive work environment for all; we welcome applicants
from all backgrounds and are committed to providing equal opportunities. Should
you require any accommodations during the recruitment process, please submit an
Accommodations Request Form, and we will work together to meet your needs.

We may use AI-enabled tools to screen and assess applicants against the criteria
for this position. This helps our recruiters identify potentially qualified
candidates, but it doesn't limit the applications our recruiters may review or
consider.

Compensation Range:

CA$250K - CA$535K