Senior Staff Performance Engineer

Samsung Semiconductor; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 189,000 - 301,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

4+ weeks paid time off

Fertility/adoption stipend

Medical travel support

Onsite café & gym

Job summary

Samsung Semiconductor’s AGI Computing Lab in San Jose leads research on scalable AI/ML workloads. The team designs systems that balance hardware and software to run agentic workflows and MoE deployments, with a focus on energy efficiency and performance.

The role requires extensive experience in performance engineering, AI systems, distributed computing, and leadership. Join a world-class team advancing AGI-enabled computing in a production-like environment.

Qualifications

• Education: BS, MS or PhD in CS/CE/EE or related field
• Experience: 10+ years with a BS, 8+ years with an MS, or 5+ years with a PhD in performance engineering, AI systems, distributed systems, HPC, or related areas
• Leadership: Senior Staff level possible with leadership across teams

Responsibilities

• Build and operate AI environments reflecting production workloads
• Collect workload traces, runtime telemetry, and performance data
• Characterize and identify bottlenecks across compute, memory, and interconnect
• Communicate findings to hardware architects, systems engineers, and researchers
• Define performance evaluation methodologies and benchmarking standards

Skills

Performance engineering

AI systems

Distributed systems

High-performance computing

Technical leadership

Education

BS, MS, or PhD in CS/CE/EE or related field

Tools

Nsight Systems

Nsight Compute

PyTorch

vLLM

SGLang

TensorRT-LLM

DeepSpeed

Ray

Megatron-LM

Job description

To provide the best candidate experience amidst our high application volumes, each candidate is limited to 10 applications across all open jobs within a 6-month period.

Advancing the World’s Technology Together

Our technology solutions power the tools you use every day--including smartphones, electric vehicles, hyperscale data centers, IoT devices, and so much more. Here, you’ll have an opportunity to be part of a global leader whose innovative designs are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and powering the future.

We believe innovation and growth are driven by an inclusive culture and a diverse workforce. We’re dedicated to empowering people to be their true selves. Together, we’re building a better tomorrow for our employees, customers, partners, and communities.

Please Note:

To provide the best candidate experience amidst our high application volumes, each candidate is limited to 10 applications across all open jobs within a 6-month period.

Advancing the World’s Technology Together

Our technology solutions power the tools you use every day--including smartphones, electric vehicles, hyperscale data centers, IoT devices, and so much more. Here, you’ll have an opportunity to be part of a global leader whose innovative designs are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and powering the future.

We believe innovation and growth are driven by an inclusive culture and a diverse workforce. We’re dedicated to empowering people to be their true selves. Together, we’re building a better tomorrow for our employees, customers, partners, and communities.

The AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) Computing Lab is dedicated to solving the complex system-level challenges posed by the growing demands of future AI/ML workloads. Our team is committed to designing and developing scalable platforms that can effectively handle the computational and memory requirements of these workloads while minimizing energy consumption and maximizing performance. To achieve this goal, we collaborate closely with both hardware and software engineers to identify and address the unique challenges posed by AI/ML workloads and to explore new computing abstractions that can provide a better balance between the hardware and software components of our systems. Additionally, we continuously conduct research and development in emerging technologies and trends across memory, computing, interconnect, and AI/ML, ensuring that our platforms are always equipped to handle the most demanding workloads of the future. By working together as a dedicated and passionate team, we aim to revolutionize the way AI/ML applications are deployed and executed, ultimately contributing to the advancement of AGI in an affordable and sustainable manner. Join us in our passion to shape the future of computing!

Location: Daily onsite presence at our San Jose, CA office / U.S. headquarters in alignment with our Flexible Work policy.

What You’ll Do

Build and operate AI environments that reflect production workloads, including agentic workflows, distributed inference, disaggregated serving architectures, and MoE deployments.

Collect workload traces, runtime telemetry, and performance data across the software stack from AI applications.

• Characterize and compare workloads across environments and platforms, identifying compute, memory, communication, and scheduling bottlenecks from applications and frameworks to runtimes, hosts, and devices.
• Communicate findings to hardware architects, systems engineers, and software researchers through reports, presentations, and architecture reviews.
• Define performance evaluation methodologies and benchmarking standards for adoption across hardware and software teams, and set the technical direction for workload characterization.

What You Bring

• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent industry experience. Required industry experience: 10+ years with a BS, 8+ years with an MS, or 5+ years with a PhD in performance engineering, AI systems, distributed systems, high-performance computing, or a related area. Candidates with additional experience and a record of technical leadership across teams may be considered at the Senior Staff level.

Ability to interpret workload traces, runtime telemetry, and performance data to identify bottlenecks and explain their underlying causes, including how workload characteristics interact with specific operations and mechanisms within software and hardware layers.

Knowledge of the LLM software stack, including serving and scheduling, attention and KV-cache management, kernel launch and memory-transfer overhead, and collective communication, and how these interact with accelerator compute throughput, memory hierarchy, memory bandwidth, and interconnect topology.

Experience characterizing agentic workflows, long-context processing, MoE models, or disaggregated inference deployments.

Experience profiling and optimizing AI workloads on NVIDIA GPU platforms using Nsight Systems and Nsight Compute, with analysis informed by GPU execution, memory hierarchy, and communication mechanisms.

Experience analyzing multi-node AI deployments, including synchronization overhead, load imbalance, communication patterns, and scaling behavior.

Experience with AI frameworks or serving systems such as PyTorch, vLLM, SGLang, TensorRT-LLM, DeepSpeed, Ray, or Megatron-LM.

What We Offer The pay range below is for all roles at this level across all US locations and functions. Pay within this range varies by work location and may also depend on job-related knowledge, skills and experience. We also offer incentive opportunities that reward employees based on individual and company performance.

Base Pay Range

$189,000 - $301,000 USD

Benefits

• Give Back With a charitable giving match and frequent opportunities to get involved, we take an active role in supporting the community.
• Enjoy Time Away You’ll start with 4+ weeks of paid time off a year, plus holidays and sick leave, to rest and recharge.
• Care for Family Whatever family means to you, we want to support you along the way—including a stipend for fertility care or adoption, caregiver support, and medical travel support.
• Prioritize Emotional Wellness With on-demand apps and free confidential therapy sessions, you’ll have support no matter where you are.
• Stay Fit Eating well and being active are important parts of a healthy life. Our onsite Café and gym, plus virtual classes, make it easier.
• Embrace Flexibility Benefits are best when you have the space to use them. That’s why we facilitate a flexible environment so you can find the right balance for you.

Equal Opportunity Employment Policy

Samsung Semiconductor takes pride in being an equal opportunity workplace dedicated to fostering an environment where all individuals feel valued and empowered to excel, regardless of race, religion, color, age, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, ancestry, genetic information, marital status, national origin, political affiliation, or veteran status.

When selecting team members, we prioritize talent and qualities such as humility, kindness, and dedication. We extend comprehensive accommodations throughout our recruiting processes for candidates with disabilities, long-term conditions, neurodivergent individuals, or those requiring pregnancy-related support. All candidates scheduled for an interview will receive guidance on requesting accommodations.

Our Commitment to Innovation and Fairness

At Samsung Semiconductor, we use Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in the recruitment process to enhance efficiency. However, AI is used as a support tool, not a final decision-maker. All hiring decisions are made by our human recruiting team and hiring managers to ensure every candidate is evaluated fairly and holistically.

We do not accept unsolicited resumes. Only authorized recruitment agencies that have a current and valid agreement with Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. are permitted to submit resumes for any job openings.

At Samsung Semiconductor, we support innovation and technology. However, to ensure a fair and authentic assessment, we ask that candidates rely on their own knowledge and skills throughout the process. AI tools may be used for basic preparation, grammar, and research, but should not be used to generate or assist with submitted content or live interview responses. If we determine that AI is being used outside these guidelines, we reserve the right to pause or end the interview, and your candidacy may be disqualified.

By submitting an application, you agree not to disclose to Samsung—or encourage Samsung to use—any confidential or proprietary information (including trade secrets) belonging to a current or former employer or other entity.

Applicant Privacy Policy
https://semiconductor.samsung.com/about-us/careers/us/privacy/

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in Samsung Semiconductor’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

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The application deadline for this role is January 3, 2027