Sr. Technologist - AI Systems & Performance Lab

SanDisk; California; Sur place; USD 180 000 - 260 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

SanDisk is seeking an experienced Sr. Technologist to establish and lead an AI Systems & Performance Lab in Milpitas, CA. This director-equivalent role emphasizes hands-on innovation and technical leadership over large team management.

You will define the lab's vision, study AI workloads, and influence system architecture and future hardware designs with data-driven insights.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a technical field; advanced degree preferred.
• 15+ years in systems engineering or AI infrastructure, performance engineering, or hardware/software co-design.
• Hands-on AI workloads experience with modern frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX).
• Strong understanding of end-to-end system performance, including compute architectures and memory hierarchy.

Responsabilités

• Establish and articulate a clear technical vision and charter for the AI Lab.
• Lead end-to-end analysis of AI training and inference workloads across stacks.
• Develop benchmarking, profiling, and workload characterization frameworks.
• Collaborate with hardware, platform, and system architecture teams to translate insights into design decisions.
• Provide technical mentorship to a small team of engineers and researchers.
• Ensure AI performance research aligns with responsible and ethical AI principles.

Connaissances

AI workloads

Performance engineering

Computer architecture

Hardware/software co-design

Mentorship

Formation

Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering

MS or PhD strongly preferred

Outils

PyTorch

TensorFlow

JAX

Description du poste

Company Description

Sandisk understands how people and businesses consume data and we relentlessly innovate to deliver solutions that enable today's needs and tomorrow's next big ideas. With a rich history of groundbreaking innovations in Flash and advanced memory technologies, our solutions have become the beating heart of the digital world we're living in and that we have the power to shape.

Sandisk meets people and businesses at the intersection of their aspirations and the moment, enabling them to keep moving and pushing possibility forward. We do this through the balance of our powerhouse manufacturing capabilities and our industry-leading portfolio of products that are recognized globally for innovation, performance and quality.

Sandisk has two facilities recognized by the World Economic Forum as part of the Global Lighthouse Network for advanced 4IR innovations. These facilities were also recognized as Sustainability Lighthouses for breakthroughs in efficient operations. With our global reach, we ensure the global supply chain has access to the Flash memory it needs to keep our world moving forward.

Job Description

We are seeking an experienced and visionary Sr. Technologist to join our organization in Milpitas, United States. This role is director‑equivalent in scope and impact, with a strong emphasis on technical leadership and hands‑on innovation rather than large team management.

In this pivotal role, you will establish and lead an AI Systems & Performance Lab focused on identifying and eliminating AI bottlenecks across real‑world workloads, software stacks, and diverse hardware configurations. You will define the lab's technical vision, develop rigorous methodologies, and deliver insights that directly influence system architecture, platform strategy, and future hardware designs.

The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in AI workloads and system performance, paired with the ability to translate complex technical findings into clear architectural and business impact.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

AI Lab Vision & Technical Leadership

• Establish and articulate a clear technical vision and charter for the AI Lab, focused on AI workload characterization and performance bottleneck analysis.
• Define the research agenda, success metrics, and execution model aligned with organizational objectives and future technology directions.
• Serve as the technical authority for AI systems performance and workload analysis.

AI Workload & System Bottleneck Analysis

• Drive end‑to‑end analysis of AI training and inference workloads, spanning models, frameworks, runtimes, and full system stacks.
• Identify performance bottlenecks across compute, memory hierarchy, interconnects, storage, power, and software layers.
• Develop repeatable methodologies for root‑cause analysis across heterogeneous platforms (CPU, GPU, NPU, and custom accelerators).

Benchmarking & Infrastructure Development

• Architect and oversee the development of benchmarking, profiling, and workload characterization frameworks.
• Evaluate AI performance across multiple hardware configurations and system topologies, ensuring rigor, reproducibility, and scalability.
• Establish best practices for performance measurement, regression tracking, and comparative analysis.

Cross‑Functional Influence

• Partner closely with hardware, platform, and system architecture teams to translate workload insights into actionable design recommendations.
• Collaborate with AI software, product, and business teams to ensure performance findings inform roadmap and investment decisions.
• Influence next‑generation system and silicon direction using data‑driven insights from real workloads.

Technical Mentorship & Thought Leadership

• Provide technical mentorship and guidance to a small, highly skilled team of engineers and researchers.
• Drive thought leadership through internal publications, external papers, or patents in AI systems and performance engineering.
• Represent the AI Lab in technical reviews, architecture forums, and executive briefings.

Responsible AI & Governance

• Ensure AI performance research and system recommendations align with responsible and ethical AI principles.
• Incorporate considerations around efficiency, sustainability, and scalability into workload and system analysis.

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field; Master's or PhD strongly preferred.
• 15+ years of industry experience in systems engineering, AI infrastructure, performance engineering, computer architecture, or hardware/software co‑design.
• Deep hands‑on experience with AI workloads (training and/or inference), including modern deep learning models and frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX, or equivalent).
• Strong understanding of end‑to‑end system performance, including compute architectures, memory hierarchy, i