The OpportunityYou'll own the technical path from customer evaluation to silicon design and win on a genuinely novel architecture, the Quadric Chimera GPNPU, which runs everything from CNNs to LLMs to arbitrary C++ on one core, with no fallback processor. Unlike a FAANG solutions role, you'll work the entire stack: quantization, custom kernels, and compiler and your fingerprints will be on chips that ship in cars, cameras, and network appliances.
At a Series C company, every design win has outsized impact. Our FDEs also build with frontier agentic tooling (Claude Code-based agentic workflows) - you won't just be supporting the product, you'll be inventing how edge-AI field engineering is done.
What You'll DoOwn the Technical Path to Design Win
- Convert 2-3 active customer evaluations into committed design wins by getting customer workloads running at target latency and accuracy on Chimera.
- Port customer workloads onto Chimera - architect, adapt, profile, and write custom kernels when required.
Embed with Customer Engineering Teams
- Work on-site and remotely with customer engineering teams: debug failures, hit benchmark targets, and guide model-architecture tradeoffs.
- Drive evaluations forward end-to-end, from first technical conversation through design win.
Build the Agentic FDE Toolkit
- Codify what you learn into reusable assets - SDK skills, porting playbooks, and agentic content - so each subsequent engagement moves faster than the last.
- Build applications and benchmark collateral that support future customer engagements.
Close the Loop Internally
- Partner with engineering and product teams to relay customer learnings and shape the roadmap.
- Contribute skills and playbooks to Quadric's growing agentic FDE toolset.
What Success Looks LikeWithin your first 6-12 months, you'll:
- Convert 2-3 active customer evaluations into committed design wins on the Chimera platform.
- Build deep fluency across the Chimera stack - quantization, custom kernels, and compiler tooling - well enough to unblock customers independently.
- Establish reusable SDK skills and porting playbooks that measurably shorten the next engagement's timeline.
- Become a trusted technical partner to customer engineering teams, known for translating ambiguous requirements into shipped results.
- Help define and refine Quadric's agentic (Claude Code-based) FDE workflow - there's no existing playbook yet; you'll help write it.
What We're Looking ForRequired
- Strong C++ and Python; has written performance-critical code for a constrained target (DSP, NPU, GPU, or embedded SoC).
- Systems-level performance intuition - memory bandwidth, data movement, cycle-level reasoning - and can read a profile and know where the time went.
- High agency and independent problem-solving; methodical and empirical rather than theoretical.
- Comfortable operating without a playbook and in ambiguity - this role is still being defined.
Preferred
- Prior FAE, Sales Engineering, or FDE title - or startup experience as the de facto owner of an end-to-end implementation.
- Familiarity with agentic dev tooling (Claude Code, MCP) - or strong enthusiasm to adopt it.
- Background at NPU/edge-AI IP and silicon companies (e.g., Qualcomm SNPE/QNN, NVIDIA TensorRT/Jetson field engineering, Ceva, Cadence Tensilica, Synopsys ARC, Arm, Hailo, Ambarella, SiMa.ai, Axelera, EdgeCortix).
- Background at inference-focused startups (e.g., Groq, Untether, Tenstorrent) in field/customer engineering or kernel teams.
- Palantir-style FDE experience - candidates with embedded or ML-systems backgrounds only.
- Experience at technical trading arms optimizing kernels or hardware for speed (e.g., DRW, Hudson River, D.E. Shaw, Citadel).
- Big-firm consulting background, provided the candidate personally did the hands-on technical work rather than managing it.
What We OfferThe range for this role reflects the typical compensation for the position; actual compensation is determined by a review of market rate alongside qualifications, experience, interview performance, and location. In addition to competitive salary and equity, we offer a variety of benefits to support your needs (US-based offerings; benefits for other locations are shared during the hiring process):
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance from day one - premiums covered at 99% for employees
- Company-paid life insurance, plus voluntary supplemental life, STD, and LTD insurance
- Commuter support, including parking or Caltrain reimbursement - our office is within walking distance of the Caltrain station
- FSA + HSA
- Equity in the business
- Paid parental leave
- 401(k) retirement plan
- Flexible PTO and winter holiday shutdown
- Catered lunch each day in our office
- Downtown Burlingame office location, close to shops, cafes, and local amenities
- Collaborative, low-ego culture with significant ownership and impact
