ML Algorithm Mapping and Performance Engineer, Core ML

We Love AI Jobs; Sunnyvale, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

Cerebras Systems seeks an ML Algorithm Mapping and Performance Engineer to map algorithms to the Cerebras architecture and benchmark against baselines. You will build analytical models, run end-to-end profiling, and drive design directions for hardware and software co-design.

The role requires strong architecture and ML fundamentals, plus hands-on prototyping and benchmarking across training and inference workloads on Cerebras hardware and GPU baselines.

Qualifications

• Proven ability to build analytical performance models for ML training and inference.
• Experience with benchmarking, system simulation, and performance tuning.
• Strong understanding of computer architecture and parallel computing.

Responsibilities

• Build analytical and empirical performance models for state-of-the-art ML training and inference algorithms.
• Characterize asymptotic behavior and identify how algorithmic trade-offs change with model size, sequence length, batch size, parallelism, and hardware scale.
• Construct Pareto frontiers across model quality, latency, throughput, memory footprint, communication, and compute cost.
• Develop prototype implementations and benchmarks for Cerebras WSE and relevant GPU or software baselines.
• Analyze system behavior to identify kernel, compiler, runtime, communication, and algorithmic bottlenecks.
• Evaluate emerging techniques in areas such as parallel token generation, diffusion and speculative decoding, attention, sparsity, mixture-of-experts, low-precision computation, and distributed training.
• Partner with researchers and kernel, compiler, runtime, inference, and architecture teams to recommend high-value implementation and co-design directions.
• Develop tools and visualizations that make performance projections, measurements, and design trade-offs understandable across engineering and research teams.
• Clearly communicate conclusions, assumptions, limitations, and recommendations through technical reports, presentations, and design reviews.

Skills

Analytical performance modeling

Benchmarking and system simulation

Computer architecture

Parallel computing

Python

C++

PyTorch

CUDA

Education

Bachelor’s, Master’s, PhD, or equivalent experience in CS/CE

Tools

PyTorch

CUDA

Job description

# ML Algorithm Mapping and Performance Engineer, Core MLCerebrasSunnyvale, CA (Hybrid)Full-timeAI tools:PyTorchJAXCUDATritonUpload your resume once and Scout applies for youApply with ScoutShare this job:LinkedInXSave imageThis engineer models and benchmarks how emerging machine learning algorithms perform on Cerebras systems and competing baselines. Their analysis helps the Core ML team prioritize research directions, implementation choices, and future hardware and software capabilities.* Permanent* Hybrid* Bachelor's, Master's, PhD, or equivalent experience### Skills and expertiseAnalytical performance modelingBenchmarking and system simulationComputer architectureParallel computingPythonC++PyTorchCUDA### Key responsibilities* Build analytical and empirical performance models for machine learning training and inference algorithms.* Develop prototypes and benchmarks for Cerebras systems and relevant GPU or software baselines.* Analyze performance trade-offs and recommend implementation and hardware-software co-design directions.## How this job comparesCompared with 329 open mid-level machine learning jobs on October 10, 2026.Pay: This job does not publish its pay. The 119 open mid-level machine learning jobs that publish US pay start at $180K a year on average.Similar open jobs: We Love AI Jobs lists 329 open mid-level machine learning jobs at 145 companies.Remote work: This job is hybrid. 66 of the 329 mid-level machine learning jobs (20%) are remote.AI in this role: High. AI is the core of the work: building, training or deploying AI systems. The role directly evaluates machine learning algorithms for training and inference, including techniques such as attention, sparsity, and speculative decoding. Its analysis guides Core ML research and implementation decisions.## Full descriptionCerebras Systems builds the world's largest AI chip, 56 times larger than GPUs. This architecture allows Cerebras to deliver industry-leading training and inference speeds; over 10 times faster than GPU-based hyperscale cloud inference services.This order of magnitude increase in speed is transforming the user experience of AI applications, unlocking real-time iteration and increasing intelligence via additional agentic computation.Cerebras works with the leading model labs, global enterprises, and cutting-edge AI-native startups. OpenAI recently announced a multi-year partnership with Cerebras, to deploy 750 megawatts of scale, transforming key workloads with ultra high-speed inference.Cerebras Systems builds the world's largest AI chip, 56 times larger than GPUs. This architecture allows Cerebras to deliver industry-leading training and inference speeds; over 10 times faster than GPU-based hyperscale cloud inference services.This order of magnitude increase in speed is transforming the user experience of AI applications, unlocking real-time iteration and increasing intelligence via additional agentic computation.Cerebras works with the leading model labs, global enterprises, and cutting-edge AI-native startups. OpenAI recently announced a multi-year partnership with Cerebras, to deploy 750 megawatts of scale, transforming key workloads with ultra high-speed inference.About The RoleThe Core ML team develops novel algorithms for efficient large-scale training and inference. We are looking for an engineer who can determine how these algorithms should be mapped to the Cerebras architecture, when they outperform competing approaches, and how their advantages change as models, workloads, and hardware systems scale.You will combine analytical performance modeling, empirical benchmarking, and hands-on prototyping to characterize the efficiency frontiers of emerging ML algorithms. Your work will span kernel-level and end-to-end performance, helping the team reason about trade-offs among model quality, latency, throughput, memory, communication, and compute utilization.This role will directly influence which research ideas Core ML pursues, how those ideas are implemented on current Cerebras systems, and which capabilities should be considered in future generations of hardware and software.Responsibilities• Build analytical and empirical performance models for state-of-the-art ML training and inference algorithms.• Characterize asymptotic behavior and identify how algorithmic trade-offs change with model size, sequence length, batch size, parallelism, and hardware scale.• Construct Pareto frontiers across model quality, latency, throughput, memory footprint, communication, and compute cost.• Develop prototype implementations and benchmarks for the Cerebras WSE and relevant GPU or software baselines.• Analyze system behavior to identify kernel, compiler, runtime, communication, and algorithmic bottlenecks.• Evaluate emerging techniques in areas such as parallel token generation, diffusion and speculative decoding, attention, sparsity, mixture-of-experts, low-precision computation, and distributed training.• Partner with researchers and kernel, compiler, runtime, inference, and architecture teams to recommend high-value implementation and co-design directions.• Develop tools and visualizations that make performance projections, measurements, and design trade-offs understandable across engineering and research teams.• Clearly communicate conclusions, assumptions, limitations, and recommendations through technical reports, presentations, and design reviews.Skills & Qualifications• Bachelor’s, Master’s, PhD, or equivalent practical experience in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field.• Strong foundation in computer architecture, parallel computing, and systems performance.• Strong understanding of machine learning fundamentals and ML systems, including how model and algorithmic choices affect compute, memory, communication, accuracy, and scaling behavior.• Experience with analytical performance modeling, algorithmic complexity analysis, benchmarking, or system simulation.• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to reason from first principles about compute, memory, and communication costs.