Senior Compiler Engineer

Slope; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Slope is seeking a Founding Compiler Engineer in San Francisco, responsible for designing core compiler infrastructure and optimizing AI models. You will write CUDA kernels and conduct performance reviews, contributing to Luminal's mission of making AI workloads portable and efficient.

This full-time, on-site position offers the opportunity to shape an engineering culture and work with advanced compiler frameworks. Ideal candidates should have experience with Rust and GPU ISAs.

Qualifications

• Experience with compiler frameworks like LLVM, MLIR, or custom compilers.
• Hands-on experience with PTX/SASS, GCN/RDNA assembly, or other GPU ISAs.
• Familiarity with ML compilers such as torch.compile, XLA, or TVM.

Responsibilities

• Design and build core compiler infrastructure.
• Profile real models to identify bottlenecks and improve performance.
• Write CUDA kernels and conduct model performance reviews.

Skills

Experience with compiler frameworks

Hands-on experience with GPU ISAs

Familiarity with ML compilers

Tools

Rust

CUDA

Job description

Luminal optimizes AI models to accelerate and simplify model deployment using a search‑based compiler.

The AI stack needs to be rethought from the ground up to achieve this. As demand for inference grows, teams will need to run models across a wider range of hardware, not just the platforms with the most mature software support.

Luminal makes AI workloads faster, more portable, and easier to deploy by automatically optimizing models for the ideal hardware. Our mission is to make state‑of‑the‑art AI production‑ready on any compute platform.

We have already closed multiple contracts with non‑Nvidia hardware platforms.

Luminal is backed by Y Combinator and Felicis as well as top‑tier angels such as Paul Graham (founder of Y Combinator), Guillermo Rauch (founder of Vercel) and many others.

What You’ll Do

• Design and build core compiler infrastructure in Rust
• Build search‑based optimization systems for discovering faster kernels
• Develop backend code generation for multiple targets (NVIDIA, Trainium, AMD, TPU, etc.)
• Implement compiler passes for fusion, scheduling, memory planning, and kernel selection
• Profile real models, identify bottlenecks, and improve latency and throughput
• Help shape Luminal’s engineering culture from the ground up

What we’re looking for

• Experience with compiler frameworks: LLVM, MLIR, or other custom compilers
• Hands‑on experience with at least one of: PTX/SASS, GCN/RDNA assembly, or other GPU ISAs
• Familiarity with ML compilers: torch.compile (or custom PyTorch backend), XLA, TVM, etc.

Nice to haves

• Background in distributed systems or multi‑device compilation
• Experience with Egg/Egglog is a STRONG plus
• Experience with Rust
• Experience in developing and deploying AI models in production environments

Role Description

This is a full‑time on‑site role for a Founding Compiler Engineer located in downtown San Francisco. You will be responsible for assisting the design of the core compiler. Day‑to‑day tasks will include writing CUDA kernels, conducting model performance reviews.