Staff Software Development Engineer - Rust, Compilers, and GPU Systems

Socket.dev; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

AMD is seeking a deeply technical Rust/compiler generalist to shape production-grade Rust components for next-gen GPU systems. You will influence across the stack from rustc internals to target-specific code generation, while ensuring memory safety and correct hardware behavior.

You will collaborate with cross-functional teams, drive architecture decisions, and advance compiler, runtime, and firmware integration for AMD platforms.

Qualifications

• Strong production Rust experience including ownership and borrowing, lifetimes, traits and generics, error handling, concurrency, FFI, and safe abstractions over unsafe operations.
• Experience with low-level or no_std Rust, embedded systems, firmware, custom targets, allocators, volatile access, interrupt handling, or architecture-specific code.
• Strong C or C++ systems programming skills and ability to work across mixed-language codebases.
• Experience with rustc internals, MIR, custom codegen backends, procedural macros, compiler plugins, or other Rust toolchain infrastructure.
• Experience with LLVM, MLIR, GCC, or another production compiler framework.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and implementation of production-quality Rust components for low-level and performance-sensitive GPU systems.
• Help make Rust a first-class engineering language across GPU software stack including toolchain integration and diagnostics.
• Design and implement compiler pipelines involving rustc, MIR, MLIR, LLVM IR and AMDGPU code generation.
• Develop analyses, transformations, and lowering for GPU execution models and memory spaces.
• Define typed interfaces across compiler, host runtime, device code, firmware and hardware boundaries.
• Work on ABI definition, argument layout, linking, loader behavior and code-object metadata.
• Develop bare-metal and no_std Rust components for deterministic hardware effects.
• Use testing, fuzzing, and formal methods where they provide meaningful assurance.
• Partner with multiple teams to solve cross-layer problems and write design documents.

Skills

Rust programming

rustc internals

C/C++ systems programming

LLVM/MLIR

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS or related field

Tools

LLVM

MLIR

GPU backends

Job description

ADVANCE YOUR CAREER. ADVANCE THE WORLD.

At AMD, we believe technology can change lives for the better. It can heal us, entertain us, and make us more connected, productive, and understanding of the world around us. And we’re looking for talent who feel the same: people who want to leave the planet better than they found it, those who don’t shy away from humanity’s challenges but are determined to help solve them.

AMD is powering the next generation of supercomputing, high-performance computing, cloud, and AI. Whether you’re designing next-gen processors, enabling AI breakthroughs, or creating go-to-market plans, every role at AMD contributes to something bigger — technology that moves the world forward.

The Role

We are building next-generation systems software for AMD GPUs with Rust as a core technical direction. The work spans compilers, runtimes, low-level GPU software, firmware, developer tooling, and methods for improving the safety and correctness of complex hardware-software systems.

Rust is not incidental to this role. You will help establish how Rust is used in performance-sensitive and high-trust parts of the GPU stack, including the compiler and tooling support, system interfaces, engineering practices, and validation methods required for production deployment. You will have the opportunity to influence both near-term implementations and the longer-term architecture for using Rust across current and future AMD platforms.

The Person

This role is for a deeply technical compiler and systems generalist who enjoys working across abstraction layers. You may move between Rust source semantics, rustc internals, intermediate representations, MLIR and LLVM, target-specific code generation, object formats, runtimes, GPU ISA, firmware, and hardware interfaces.

You should have strong judgment about correctness boundaries. Memory safety is important, but production correctness also depends on concurrency, ordering, ABI compatibility, device behavior, compiler transformations, and the assumptions between software and hardware. You will help make those assumptions explicit and build evidence that the resulting systems behave as intended.

The ideal candidate has deep expertise in at least one part of this stack and the ability to become productive in unfamiliar areas. Experience with every technology listed below is not expected. A research background is not required, although the ability to read technical work, form testable hypotheses, and turn promising ideas into reliable implementations is valuable.

The work sits at the intersection of Rust systems programming, production compiler infrastructure, GPU architecture, firmware, program analysis, and formal methods. Hardware-software co-design experience is highly valuable, especially when compiler, runtime, firmware, or ISA choices must evolve together.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design and implementation of production-quality Rust components for low-level and performance-sensitive GPU systems.
• Help make Rust a first-class engineering language across relevant parts of the GPU software stack, including toolchain integration, libraries, coding standards, diagnostics, testing, and deployment practices.
• Design and implement compiler pipelines involving rustc, MIR, target-neutral intermediate representations, MLIR dialects and transformations, LLVM IR, and AMDGPU code generation.
• Build analyses, transformations, legalization passes, and target-specific lowering for GPU execution models, memory spaces, synchronization, capabilities, and specialized hardware operations.
• Define typed and auditable interfaces across compiler, host runtime, device code, firmware, and hardware boundaries.
• Work on ABI definition and validation, argument layout, calling conventions, linker and loader behavior, ELF and code-object metadata, and source-to-binary identity.
• Develop or improve bare-metal andno stdRust components where explicit state, bounded behavior, fail-closed handling, and predictable hardware effects are required.
• Use testing, fuzzing, property-based testing, differential execution, executable models, and hardware validation to find semantic gaps and prevent regressions.
• Apply program analysis or formal methods where they provide meaningful assurance, including source-level invariants, state-machine properties, refinement obligations, and clearly documented trusted boundaries.
• Distinguish precisely among type-system guarantees, source-level proofs, compiler evidence, binary validation, simulator results, and behavior observed on hardware.
• Partner with compiler, runtime, firmware, architecture, validation, security, and performance teams to solve problems that cross organizational and technical boundaries.
• Write design documents, lead technical reviews, mentor engineers, and explain complex language, compiler, and hardware behavior clearly.
• Evaluate emerging compiler and verification technologies and integrate them when they improve the safety, performance, maintainability, or development velocity of production systems.

Preferred Experience

• Strong production Rust experience, including ownership and borrowing, lifetimes, traits and generics, error handling, concurrency, FFI, and the careful design of safe abstractions over unsafe operations.
• Experience with low-level or constrained Rust, includingno std, embedded systems, firmware, custom targets, allocators, volatile access, interrupt handling, or architecture-specific code.
• Strong C or C++ systems programming skills and the ability to work across mixed-language codebases.
• Experience with rustc internals, MIR, custom codegen backends, procedural macros, compiler plugins, or other Rust toolchain infrastructure.
• Experience with LLVM, MLIR, GCC, or another production compiler framework.
• Experience designing intermediate representations, dialects, analyses, optimization passes, legalization, instruction selection, scheduling, or target-specific code generation.
• Understanding of compiler correctness issues such as undefined behavior, aliasing, provenance, layout, calling conventions, memory models, and source-to-target semantic preservation.
• Ability to read and reason about low-level assembly, ISA encodings, compiler output, and machine-level execution.
• Experience with linkers, loaders, ELF or other object formats, code-object metadata, DWARF, LLVM MC, disassembly, post-link analysis, or binary rewriting.
• Understanding of GPU execution models, including waves or warps, SIMD/SIMT execution, address spaces, registers, local or shared memory, caches, synchronization, atomics, barriers, and asynchronous operations.
• AMDGPU, GCN, RDNA, CDNA, ROCm, HIP, HSA, or AMDGPU LLVM backend experience.
• Experience with GPU runtimes, drivers, firmware, embedded processors, device initialization, command processing, queueing, or hardware control paths.
• Experience building secure or high-assurance systems that process untrusted inputs or operate across privilege, memory-isolation, or hardware trust boundaries.
• Experience with program analysis, abstract interpretation, symbolic execution, model checking, SMT solvers, or formal verification tools such as Verus, Lean, Coq, Isabelle, Dafny, or TLA+.
• Experience writing executable specifications, proving state-machine invariants, or validating refinement between source, IR, binaries, simulators, RTL, and hardware.
• Strong validation instincts, including adversarial testing, differential testing, property-based testing, fuzzing, reproducible evidence, and careful treatment of assumptions and counterexamples.
• Hardware-software co-design experience for ISA features, compiler-visible architecture, memory systems, synchronization, security mechanisms, or specialized compute pipelines.
• Technical leadership experience: setting direction, resolving ambiguous cross-layer problems, influencing partner teams, mentoring engineers, and communicating tradeoffs clearly.

Preferred Academic Credentials

Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent industry experience. Research publications and advanced degrees are welcome but are not required.

This role is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

Benefits offered are described: AMD benefits at a glance.

AMD does not accept unsolicited resumes from headhunters, recruitment agencies, or fee-based recruitment services. AMD and its subsidiaries are equal opportunity, inclusive employers and will consider all applicants without regard to age, ancestry, color, marital status, medical condition, mental or physical disability, national origin, race, religion, political and/or third-party affiliation, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We encourage applications from all qualified candidates and will accommodate applicants’ needs under the respective laws throughout all stages of the recruitment and selection process.

AMD may use Artificial Intelligence to help screen, assess or select applicants for this position. AMD’s “Responsible AI Policy” is available here.

This posting is for an existing vacancy.