AI Performance Modeling Engineer

Quadric; Burlingame (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 225,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

Company-paid life Insurance

Equity

Paid Parental Leave

401(k) Retirement Plan

Flexible PTO

Catered lunch

Caltrain reimbursement

Downtown Burlingame office

Job summary

Quadric in Burlingame, California, is seeking an AI Performance Modeling Engineer to build cycle-level models of AI inference on the GPNPU architecture. You will work in Python to guide hardware decisions and optimize mapping of workloads from vision nets to LLMs.

This role welcomes all experience levels with mentorship, and offers a competitive base salary, equity, and a range of benefits; you’ll collaborate with a small, high-impact team in a growth-stage semiconductor company.

Qualifications

• Python skills to write, validate and calibrate numerical models.
• Solid grasp of memory hierarchies, bandwidth, latency trade-offs, and bottlenecks.
• Experience writing clear technical studies with defended conclusions.
• Core depth in NN inference operators or equivalent performance modeling.
• BS/MS/PhD in CS, Electrical/Computer Engineering, or equivalent experience.

Responsibilities

• Build analytical, cycle-level Python models of AI inference on next-gen GPNPU hardware.
• Derive hardware lane bindings and model software pipeline overlaps.
• Model tensor placement, tiling, memory residency, and data movement across memory tiers.
• Calibrate models against ISA simulator and profiling traces; meet accuracy targets.
• Write and defend technical studies that inform architecture and product decisions.
• Balance single-stream latency and throughput across workloads.

Skills

Python

Quantitative modeling

Computer architecture

Technical writing

NN inference operators

Education

BS/MS/PhD in CS/EE/CE

Tools

CUDA

Triton

gem5

Timeloop

MAESTRO

Accel-Sim

Job description

About Quadric

Quadric is redefining edge AI with the industry's first General Purpose Neural Processing Unit (GPNPU), enabling developers to run both neural network inference and conventional C++ code on a single programmable architecture. Our technology powers intelligent edge devices across automotive, industrial, robotics, and embedded systems.

Founded by technologists from MIT and Carnegie Mellon, Quadric is a well-funded growth-stage semiconductor IP company with a growing licensing business.

The Opportunity

Quadric has created an innovative General-Purpose Neural Processing Unit (GPNPU) architecture. Unlike standard accelerators, the Quadric GPNPU executes both neural network graph code and conventional C++ DSP/control code across edge and endpoint devices.

As an AI Performance Modeling Engineer, you will build analytical, cycle-level performance models of AI inference workloads on our next-generation architecture in Python before silicon exists. These models directly guide team decisions on hardware lane bindings, tensor placement, and architecture trade-offs. We welcome candidates across all experience levels—from early-career engineers to seasoned experts with direct mentorship provided to help you master mapping complex workloads (like LLMs) onto our custom hardware.

What You'll Do

Performance Modeling & Architectural Analysis

• Build analytical, cycle-level Python models of AI inference workloads executing on next-generation GPNPU hardware.
• Derive from first principles which hardware lanes operations bind on (compute, on-chip/external memory bandwidth, interconnect) and model software pipelining overlaps.
• Model tensor placement, tiling across processing elements, local memory residency, and data movement across memory tiers.
• Model sharding and collective boundary communication across multi-die systems.

Workload Adaptation & Technical Writing

• Incorporate architectural details across vision networks and Large Language Models (LLMs), including operator mix, sparsity, routing, and quantization/low-precision numeric formats.
• Calibrate performance models against an instruction-set simulator and profiling traces to meet stated accuracy targets.
• Write and defend technical studies presenting empirical evidence that directly informs architecture and product decisions.
• Balance single-stream latency against scaled throughput performance.

What Success Looks Like

Within your first 6–12 months, you'll:

• Own a full workload's model end to end, calibrated against simulation and trusted by the engineering team.
• Build performance models that consistently predict workload behavior within 20–30% of actual measurements.li>
• Publish a written study whose defended conclusions directly shape an architecture or product decision.
• Review and extend performance models beyond your initial starting domain.

What We’re Looking For

Required

• Python & Quantitative Modeling: Strong Python skills with experience writing, validating, and calibrating numerical or quantitative models in code.
• Computer Architecture Fundamentals: Solid grasp of memory hierarchies, bandwidth/latency trade-offs, pipelining, and execution bottlenecks (via industry experience, coursework, or research).
• Technical Writing: Comfort writing clear technical studies that state and defend evidence-based conclusions.
• Core Technical Depth (One of the following):
  • Option A: Deep understanding of NN inference operators and tensor shapes (e.g., Transformers, attention mechanisms, MoE, prefill/decode split).
  • Option B: Proven performance modeling experience in another quantitative/technical domain.
• Education: BS, MS, or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred

• Prior experience with GPUs, custom AI accelerators, CUDA, or Triton kernels.
• Familiarity with roofline analysis, back-of-the-envelope estimation, or architecture simulators (e.g., gem5, Timeloop, MAESTRO, Accel-Sim).
• Background in compiler internals (cost models, autotuners) or proficiency in C++.
• Published performance studies or technical write-ups.

What We Offer

The base salary range for this position is $180,000 to $225,000. This range reflects the full span of levels and geographies at which Quadric hires for this role. The actual base salary offered will depend on a number of factors, including the specific level of the role, years and depth of relevant experience, technical skills and competencies, the criticality of the role to the business, internal equity, and work location. In addition to base salary, this role is eligible for equity and a discretionary annual performance bonus as applicable to the role and level.

In addition to a competitive salary, we offer a variety of benefits to support your needs. The benefits below reflect our US-based offerings; for roles in other locations, benefits vary and are shared during the hiring process. These include:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance from day one - Premiums covered at 99% for Employees
• Company-paid life Insurance
• Voluntary supplemental life insurance
• STD + LTD insurance
• Commuter support including parking or Caltrain reimbursement. Our office is conveniently located within walking distance of the Caltrain station
• FSA + HSA
• Equity with the business
• Paid Parental Leave
• 401(k) Retirement Plan
• Flexible PTO
• Winter holiday shutdown
• Catered lunch each day in our office
• Downtown Burlingame office location, close to shops, cafes, and local amenities
• Collaborative, low-ego culture with significant ownership and impact
• A work culture focused on innovative disruption

Founded in 2016 and based in downtown Burlingame, California, Quadric is building the world’s first supercomputer designed for the real-time needs of edge devices. Quadric aims to empower developers in every industry with superpowers to create tomorrow’s technology, today. The company was co-founded by technologists from MIT and Carnegie Mellon, who were previously the technical co-founders of the Bitcoin computing company 21.

Quadric is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment where people from all backgrounds can do their best work. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.

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