Performance Engineer (Junior) AI Infrastructure Cambridge (Hybrid)

Pure Resourcing Solutions; Cambridgeshire and Peterborough; Hybrid; GBP 63,000 - 77,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension

Hybrid Cambridge office

Academic/AI community exposure

Job summary

Pure Resourcing Solutions seeks a Junior Performance Engineer to help build predictive models for AI infrastructure in Cambridge, collaborating with senior engineers on live training and inference workloads.

You will turn metrics into practical tools, assess whether optimizations are worth shipping, and own early-stage performance analyses with support. Hybrid Cambridge role with strong growth potential.

Qualifications

• Postgraduate research background, PhD preferred or exceptional master’s graduates considered.
• Strong understanding of computer architecture and how LLMs run on hardware.
• Experience building performance models or forecasting tools using Python or spreadsheets.
• Hands-on with GPU/accelerator code (CUDA or similar).
• Familiar with profiling tools (Nsight, PyTorch Profiler) and monitoring stacks (Prometheus, Grafana).
• Strong Python for data work; Pandas and NumPy; scripting ability.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with senior engineers to pull metrics from live training and inference jobs.
• Translate metrics into models and calculators to assess whether an optimization is worth shipping.
• Own early-stage performance assessments with close senior support.
• Evaluate cost-effectiveness of different setups before deployment.

Skills

PhD preferred

Computer architecture

Performance modeling

CUDA / GPU

Profiling tools

Python + Pandas

Education

PhD in CS/Math/Physics

Master degree in related field

Tools

Nsight

PyTorch Profiler

Prometheus

Grafana

CUDA

Job description

Performance Engineer (Junior) AI Infrastructure Cambridge (Hybrid) up to £70k Most engineers find out whether a change works after it ships. This role is about knowing before anyone spends a penny on new hardware, building the models that predict itMy client is a Cambridge-based non-profit built on a fairly simple premise: different bits of the AI world keep solving the same infrastructure problems separately, and that’s wasteful. So they’ve built a shared space where startups, big enterprises, government bodies and university researchers can pool that hard technical work instead. Early days as an organisation, but real backing and real momentum behind it.
This particular seat is for an early career professional. We’re after someone academically exceptional, ideally with a PhD, who’s ready to get stuck into real technical work quickly rather than needing a long runway to get there.
Day to day
You’d work alongside senior engineers on the team, pulling real metrics off live training and inference jobs and turning them into models and calculators that answer actual questions, whether an optimisation is worth shipping, whether a different setup would run cheaper. Real ownership early, with senior support close by.

What you’ll bring

• A postgraduate research background, ideally a PhD in computer science, mathematics, physics or a closely related field, strongly preferred, exceptional recent master’s graduates with directly relevant coursework will also be considered
• A genuine, demonstrated grasp of computer architecture fundamentals and how LLMs and deep learning models actually run on hardware, training versus inference, matrix multiplication, KV-caching
• Real experience building performance models or forecasting tools, Python or spreadsheet-based, from research, a thesis, a placement, or serious personal projects
• Hands‑on work with GPU or accelerator code, CUDA or similar
• Familiarity with profiling tools (Nsight, PyTorch Profiler) and ideally some exposure to monitoring stacks (Prometheus, Grafana)
• Strong Python for data work, Pandas and NumPy, genuine scripting ability

Nice to have: exposure to inference serving frameworks like vLLM, published research, or open source contributions in this space.

Why look twice at this one
An early route into industry for someone whose academic record speaks for itself, working directly with senior engineers on problems with real backing behind them. Pension, hybrid from a Cambridge office, and exposure to people across the wider AI and academic scene most people this early in their career don’t get.