Location: Austin, TX or Sunnyvale, CA. Full-time onsite position.
Reports To: Sr. Director of Modeling
FLSA Status: Exempt
Position OverviewWe are seeking a modeling architect for hands-on architecture modeling of the T100 optical inference accelerator, with hardware/software co-design in the loop. You will work alongside senior engineers across two tracks. The first is analytical and system performance: roofline and limiter analyses, architecture performance models, workload setup, and the resulting plots and reports. The second is hardware models: functional, performance, and power models of compute blocks, memory, and hardware/software interfaces built in an event-driven simulator, plus RTL simulation.
We expect real depth in one track and will help you build breadth across both. Most engineers start with a bounded piece, a single workload, a hardware block, or one layer of the model stack, and take on the surrounding area as the models mature.
Key Responsibilities- Bring up inference workloads as they ship, including dense and Mixture of Experts (MoE) transformers, hybrid/SSM models, prefill versus decode, KV cache, expert routing, and quantization, plus retrieval, speech, vision, and recommendation workloads where they map onto the accelerator.
- Bind Hugging Face and PyTorch workloads to the programming model and run them on the functional model.
- Co-design tiling, scheduling, the instruction set architecture (ISA), the SRAM and High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) hierarchy, and multi-chip mapping.
- Build in one or more layers of the modeling stack: roofline and limiter studies; Python energy and latency models; C++ functional models of optical GEMM, SRAM vector processors, dataflow engines, and HBM; cycle-approximate performance and power models; and RTL simulation with Verilator and SystemVerilog.
- Own the tests, configs, and plots behind a result so anyone can rerun it and see what was assumed.
- Use coding agents on real multi-file edits, and own the review of the C++ and SystemVerilog they generate.
- Share results with the architects setting the design, as well as the compiler, runtime, and RTL teams, and carry their questions back into the model stack.
Qualifications- BS or MS in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
- 3+ years of experience in hardware modeling, performance simulation, computer architecture, or related work.
- Proficiency in Python or modern C++ (C++17 or later). Python-first and C++-first backgrounds are both welcome.
- Working knowledge of computer architecture and microarchitecture, including pipelines, caches, memory hierarchies, and instruction set architecture (ISA).
- Ability to turn an LLM, GEMM, or accelerator paper into a workload config using Hugging Face or PyTorch.
- Strong debugging skills and the habit of writing down what was run, what was assumed, and what the number means.
Preferred Skills- MS or PhD in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Computer Science.
- Experience with roofline analysis, limiter analysis, GPU benchmarking, or correlating a model against published numbers.
- Event-driven, cycle-approximate, or cycle-accurate simulation with SystemC, gem5, SST, or a custom kernel.
- SystemVerilog, Verilog, Verilator, or RTL co-simulation.
- Memory and interconnect experience with HBM, DRAM, cache, SRAM, network-on-chip (NoC), AXI, or DMA.
- Familiarity with CUDA, GPU programming, or PyTorch internals.
What We OfferThis is an opportunity to play a pivotal role in an innovative startup redefining the future of AI hardware. Work on game-changing technology at the intersection of photonics and AI as part of a collaborative, brilliant team. You'll contribute to a platform that redefines computational performance and accelerates the future of artificial intelligence. Come help us bring this transformative technology to the world.
BenefitsJoin a team that invests in your future and your well-being. At Neurophos, we offer:
- 100% coverage of base health plan premiums for you and your dependents, plus HSA contributions.
- Unlimited PTO. No rigid vacation banks, just a focus on delivery.
- 401(k) matching and stock option opportunities to ensure our success is your success.
- Full suite of voluntary benefits, including Dental, Vision, Life, Hospital, Critical Illness, and Accident insurance.
- Personalized Benefits. Choose the plans that fit your life and take the cash back for those that don't.
