AI Software Engineer – Runtime & Systems (Contractor)

Huawei Technologies Research & Development (UK) Ltd; Cambridge; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Huawei Research and Development UK Limited is seeking a Software Engineer to advance runtime and systems software for high-performance AI workloads, including large language models. You will optimize inference, explore graph-based execution, and collaborate with researchers and engineers across frameworks and accelerator stacks.

The role emphasizes low-latency, high-performance AI inference, with exposure to runtime systems, compilers, and multi-NPU environments in a Cambridge setting.

Qualifications

• Proficient in C/C++ and Python for AI workloads.
• Strong systems programming skills including concurrency and memory management.
• Experience with runtime or distributed AI systems is required.

Responsibilities

• Design, prototype and implement runtime optimizations for AI workloads.
• Explore scheduling, graph execution, asynchronous execution and resource management.
• Profile workloads to identify bottlenecks across CPU/accelerator stacks.
• Work with multi-NPU/accelerator platforms to optimize compute and IO.
• Collaborate with researchers and engineers across frameworks and compilers.
• Contribute to research papers and practical engineering deliverables.

Skills

C/C++

Python

Systems programming

Concurrency

Debugging

Performance analysis

Tools

CUDA

ROCm

OpenCL

CANN/Ascend

PyTorch

vLLM

SGLang

ONNX Runtime

Job description

About Huawei Research and Development UK Limited

Founded in 1987, Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. We have 207,000 employees and operate in over 170 countries and regions, serving more than three billion people around the world.

Our vision and mission is to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world. To this end, we will drive ubiquitous connectivity and promote equal access to networks; bring cloud and artificial intelligence to all four corners of the earth to provide superior computing power where you need it, when you need it; build digital platforms to help all industries and organizations become more agile, efficient, and dynamic; redefine user experience with AI, making it more personalized for people in all aspects of their life, whether they’re at home, in the office, or on the go.

This spirit of innovation has led Huawei to work in close partnership with leading academic institutions in the UK to develop and refine the latest technologies. With a shared commitment to innovation and progress, both parties have worked together to achieve common goals and establish a strong partnership. The partnership between UK and Huawei help to develop the technologies of the future that will transform the way we all communicate, work and live.

For the past 30 years we have maintained an unwavering focus, rejecting shortcuts and easy opportunities that don't align with our core business. With a practical approach to everything we do, we concentrate our efforts and invest patiently to drive technological breakthroughs.

This strategic focus is a reflection of our core values:

• Staying customer-centric,
• Inspiring dedication,
• Persevering,
• Growing by reflection.

Huawei Research and Development UK Limited Overview

Huawei’s vision is a fully connected, intelligent world. To achieve this, we work to inspire passion for basic research around the world. Our combined passion drives development across the global innovation value chain. Huawei has the largest Research and Development organization in the world with 96,000+ employees in research centers around the globe. In the UK, we already have design centers in Cambridge, London, Edinburgh and Ipswich. We continue to explore and define new research directions and new services. We have expanded our collaborations with academic researchers; researched new network architectures, integration of communications and key enabling technologies; and developed the fundamental theories of these technologies. We invite you to join us on this exciting journey and drive your career forward.

Job Summary

As a Software Engineer, you will contribute to the design and implementation of runtime and systems software for high-performance AI workloads. The work will focus on improving the performance and efficiency of AI inference, including large language model workloads and multi-accelerator execution.

Key Responsibilities:

You will:

• Design, prototype and implement runtime optimizations for AI workloads, with a focus on low-latency and high-performance inference.
• Explore runtime techniques including task scheduling, graph-based execution, asynchronous execution, resource management, synchronization, and memory and communication coordination.
• Profile AI workloads and identify performance bottlenecks across the CPU, accelerator, runtime and communication stack.
• Investigate efficient execution of workloads across multiple NPUs, including compute/communication overlap and minimizing host-side overhead.
• Work with AI frameworks like vLLM/SGLang, inference systems and accelerator software stacks to prototype and evaluate new runtime mechanisms.
• Collaborate with researchers and engineers working across frameworks, compilers, runtime systems and processor architecture.

This job description is only an outline of the tasks, responsibilities and outcomes required of the role. The jobholder will carry out any other duties as may be reasonably required by his/her line manager. The job description and personal specification may be reviewed on an ongoing basis in accordance with the changing needs of Huawei Research and Development UK Limited.

Required:

• Good software development skills in C/C++ and Python.
• Understanding of systems programming concepts such as concurrency, threads, synchronization, memory management and asynchronous execution.
• Hands-on experience in at least one relevant area such as runtime systems, distributed systems, AI/ML systems, GPU/NPU programming, compilers, or high-performance computing.
• Ability to analyse software performance, debug complex systems and reason about performance bottlenecks.
• Familiarity with modern AI workloads and an interest in high-performance AI inference and accelerator systems.
• Ability to learn new software and hardware platforms and work collaboratively on research and engineering problems.
• Please note that visa sponsorship is not available for this contractor role.

Desired:

• Experience with GPU or NPU programming environments such as CUDA, ROCm, OpenCL or CANN/Ascend.
• Experience with AI frameworks or inference/serving systems such as PyTorch, vLLM, SGLang, ONNX Runtime, or similar systems.
• Experience with profiling and performance-analysis tools for CPUs, GPUs or NPUs.
• Knowledge of multi-device or distributed execution, collective communication, task scheduling or resource management.
• Experience with graph-based execution or asynchronous runtime systems.
• Familiarity with compiler technologies such as LLVM or MLIR.
• Experience optimizing machine-learning or high-performance computing workloads.