Performance Modeling Lead

OpenAI; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Hybrid work model

Job summary

A leading tech company in California is seeking a Performance Modeling Lead to develop and guide performance modeling frameworks for advanced AI systems. This role involves analyzing architectural trade-offs, translating insights into actionable recommendations, and collaborating closely with various internal teams and external vendors. The ideal candidate will have strong experience in AI workloads and system design, as well as excellent leadership and communication skills. This position operates in a hybrid work environment and offers relocation assistance.

Qualifications

• Experience in building performance modeling frameworks that impact system design.
• Knowledge of AI/ML workloads, including training and inference at scale.
• Ability to work across abstraction layers in distributed systems.
• Experience using modeling to guide architectural decisions.

Responsibilities

• Develop and own a performance modeling framework for AI systems.
• Analyze architectural tradeoffs across various system components.
• Translate modeling results into clear recommendations for teams.
• Influence designs and vendor roadmaps with data insights.
• Lead a small engineering team while maintaining high standards.

Skills

Performance modeling frameworks

AI/ML workloads

System-level tradeoffs

Quantitative analysis

Communication

Job description

OpenAI’s Hardware organization develops system and infrastructure solutions designed for the unique demands of advanced AI workloads. We work closely with research, software, and external hardware partners to shape the next generation of AI systems, from silicon through full‑scale deployments.

Our team focuses on understanding and optimizing performance across the full system stack—ensuring that architectural decisions are grounded in rigorous, quantitative analysis of real‑world workloads.

About the Role

We are seeking a Performance Modeling Lead to build and lead a small, high‑impact team responsible for answering forward‑looking architectural questions across AI infrastructure systems.

You will develop modeling frameworks and methodologies to evaluate system‑level tradeoffs and guide key design decisions. Your work will directly influence reference architectures, vendor designs, and long‑term infrastructure strategy.

This role sits at the intersection of AI workloads, system architecture, and quantitative modeling, and requires strong technical judgment, ownership, and the ability to translate complex analysis into clear, actionable guidance.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance.

Key Responsibilities

Build and own a performance modeling framework/toolchain to evaluate AI systems across multiple levels of abstraction.

Analyze and quantify architectural tradeoffs across compute, memory, networking, storage, and system topology.

Develop performance models to guide decisions on:

• scale‑up vs. scale‑out architectures
• interconnect and network design
• memory hierarchy and system balance.

Translate modeling outputs into clear recommendations for internal teams and external hardware vendors.

Influence reference designs and vendor roadmaps through data‑driven insights.

Partner closely with machine learning, systems, and hardware teams to understand workload characteristics and requirements.

Lead and grow a small team (2–3 engineers), setting technical direction and maintaining high standards for modeling rigor.

Continuously improve modeling fidelity by validating against real system behavior and measurements.

Qualifications

Have experience owning or building performance modeling frameworks used to drive real system design decisions.

Have deep knowledge of AI/ML workloads, including training and/or inference at scale.

Understand system‑level tradeoffs across compute, memory, and networking in large‑scale distributed systems.

Are comfortable working across abstraction layers—from workload behavior to hardware implementation.

Have experience using modeling (analytical or simulation) to inform architectural decisions.

Can operate in ambiguous problem spaces and turn open‑ended questions into structured analysis.

Communicate clearly and influence both internal teams and external partners.

Preferred Skills

Experience working with hardware vendors (ODM/JDM, silicon, networking).

Background in data center infrastructure or hyperscale systems.

Familiarity with accelerators (GPUs/ASICs) and interconnects (e.g., NVLink, InfiniBand, Ethernet).

Experience influencing hardware roadmaps or reference architectures.

Prior experience leading or mentoring engineers.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.