Lead Kernel Engineer/Architect (m/f/d)

EPAM Systems; Frankfurt; Hybrid; EUR 140.000 - 210.000; Vollzeit

Benefits dieser Stelle

30 days holiday

Company Pension Scheme

Performance reviews

ESPP (stock plan)

Corporate Benefits

Learning & development

Flexible remote work

Team events

Zusammenfassung

EPAM Systems is seeking a Lead Kernel Engineer/Architect in Germany to push the limits of hardware accelerators for AI workloads. You will design high-performance kernels for TPUs and GPUs and work across ML frameworks and compiler teams to optimize large-scale training and inference pipelines.

The role requires deep kernel optimization, systems programming, and collaboration with researchers and engineers to deliver scalable AI compute solutions on cloud platforms and OSS ecosystems.

Qualifikationen

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 12+ years of industry experience in software engineering or systems programming.
• 5+ years of experience in software development using C++ or Python.
• 3+ years of experience in testing, maintaining or launching software products and at least 1 year in software design or architecture.
• Hands-on experience in performance optimization at the kernel level for accelerators or high-performance systems.

Aufgaben

• Design and optimize high-performance kernels for TPU and GPU architectures using low-level programming frameworks such as Pallas, Triton or Mosaic.
• Build and maintain performance infrastructure, including benchmarking suites, autotuning systems, regression testing frameworks and tooling.
• Collaborate with ML framework developers (e.g., JAX, PyTorch) and compiler teams (XLA/MLIR) to integrate custom kernels and reduce performance bottlenecks.
• Track advancements in accelerator hardware, compiler technology and AI model design to identify opportunities for kernel-level optimization.
• Develop clear documentation, APIs and supporting OSS components that improve developer usability and adoption.
• Analyze and resolve complex performance issues impacting large-scale distributed training and inference systems.

Kenntnisse

C++

Python

Kernel optimization

Performance tuning

Distributed systems

Collaborating across teams

Low-level programming

Ausbildung

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Pallas

Triton

Mosaic

JAX

PyTorch

XLA/MLIR

OpenXLA

Jobbeschreibung

We’re looking for a Lead Kernel Engineer/Architect to join our team in Germany in a hybrid working mode. Are you passionate about pushing advanced hardware accelerators to their limits? Join us in shaping the future of AI performance and scalability. As a Lead Kernel Engineer/Architect, you will drive the optimization of critical machine learning operations for large-scale training and inference, working with cutting-edge hardware like TPUs and GPUs, advanced ML models and performance toolchains. Your work will enable faster AI research and production deployments on cloud platforms and within open-source ecosystems. In this role, you will collaborate with researchers, compiler engineers and framework developers to deliver optimized, high-performance solutions that set the standard for modern AI computation.

Responsibilities

• Design and optimize high-performance kernels for TPU and GPU architectures using low-level programming frameworks such as Pallas, Triton or Mosaic
• Build and maintain performance infrastructure, including benchmarking suites, autotuning systems, regression testing frameworks and tooling
• Collaborate with ML framework developers (e.g., JAX, PyTorch) and compiler teams (XLA/MLIR) to integrate custom kernels and reduce performance bottlenecks
• Track advancements in accelerator hardware, compiler technology and AI model design to identify opportunities for kernel-level optimization
• Develop clear documentation, APIs and supporting OSS components that improve developer usability and adoption
• Analyze and resolve complex performance issues impacting large-scale distributed training and inference systems

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience
• 12+ years of industry experience in software engineering or systems programming
• 5+ years of experience in software development using C++ or Python
• 3+ years of experience in testing, maintaining or launching software products and at least 1 year in software design or architecture
• Hands‑on experience in performance optimization at the kernel level for accelerators or high-performance systems

Nice to have

• Proficiency in low-level accelerator programming (CUDA, Triton, Pallas)
• Familiarity with ML frameworks such as JAX or PyTorch and optimization techniques for attention layers, Mixture of Experts (MoE) and precision tuning
• Strong understanding of modern hardware accelerators, including pipelining, data movement and heterogeneous compute
• Knowledge of compiler principles and intermediate representations (e.g., MLIR, OpenXLA)
• Experience building OSS developer infrastructure, APIs and performance-critical libraries
• Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to collaborate in cross‑functional engineering environments

We offer

• 30 days holiday per annum
• Company Pension Scheme
• Regular performance assessments
• Discount on Fitness-First Black Membership
• bitkom - Corporate Benefits
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) (subject to certain eligibility requirements)
• Learning and development opportunities, including in-house training and coaching, professional certifications, and courses
• Friendly and enjoyable working team
• Regular corporate and social events
• Flexible and remote working opportunities
• Award-winning workplace: Great Place To Work® certified in 2026, Kununu (Top Company 2022–2026), NewWork Business Award 2025 for outstanding culture, innovation and employee satisfaction.