High Performance Engineer (up to £140k)

Dex; Cambridge; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Dex in Cambridge is building GPU-accelerated robotics simulation and training infrastructure. The role is a senior IC responsible for profiling and optimizing the full stack—from GPU physics to real-time edge execution on humanoid and quadruped robots.

You will work closely with the founders to set performance benchmarks and drive low-latency engineering across the engine. On-site work in the UK lab is required, with a hands-on approach to code, profiling, and architectural decisions.

Qualifications

• Proven track record of making systems faster through profiling and memory layout design.
• Experience in latency/throughput critical environments like game engines, HPC, or real-time systems.
• On-site work at the lab in Cambridge, UK required.

Responsibilities

• Profile and optimize GPU and CPU execution pipelines across the simulation engine, training loops, and edge deployment to eliminate latency.
• Architect cache-friendly memory layouts, lock-free structures, and parallel execution paths.
• Test performance gains on physical quadruped and humanoid robots in the lab.
• Set engineering standards for performance testing and benchmarking across the team through hands-on pairing and code review.
• Work directly with the founders to debate architecture and make irreversible design calls on the core engine.

Skills

C++ performance optimization

Low-latency systems

Hardware-aware profiling

Job description

The role

Most robotics simulation hits a bottleneck because the physics engine cannot run fast enough to train policies at scale. This team builds GPU-accelerated simulation and training infrastructure where speed is the entire value proposition, founded by two engineers who spent over a decade building physics engines at the world's dominant GPU architecture company. Backed by top-tier VCs with extensive runway, they run a lean 11-person team in Cambridge with physical hardware in the room.

You will own performance across the entire stack: from GPU physics simulation and policy learning loops to real-time edge execution on humanoid and quadruped robots. This is a senior IC seat, not a middle-management layer. You are here to profile systems, reclaim milliseconds alongside founders who still write engine code daily, and provide the technical anchor that a sharp, early-career team needs in the room.

The work

• Profile and optimize GPU and CPU execution pipelines across the simulation engine, training loops, and edge deployment to systematically eliminate latency.
• Architect cache-friendly memory layouts, lock-free structures, and parallel execution paths tailored to modern hardware limits.
• Test and validate performance gains directly on physical quadruped and humanoid robots inside the lab.
• Set the engineering standard for performance testing and benchmarking across the team through hands-on pairing and code review.
• Work directly with the technical founders to debate architecture and make irreversible design calls on the core engine.

What You Bring

• Mastery of modern C++ with a demonstrable record of making systems measurably faster through low-level profiling, memory layout design, parallelism, and deep hardware awareness.
• Prior work in environments where latency or throughput is the product itself, such as game or physics engines, HPC, scientific simulation, low-latency trading, or embedded real-time systems.
• Proven ability as a senior individual contributor to raise the technical bar of an early-career engineering team through rigorous code reviews, direct pairing, and clear task decomposition.
• Ability to work fully on site at the lab in Cambridge, UK every day.