River AI
Performance Engineer, Hardware
$200K–$420K
Palo Alto, CA +2 · Full-time · Posted May 15, 2026
- Location
- Palo Alto, CA
Austin, TX
Austin, Texas, United States - Experience
- 5+ years practical industry experience working with advanced process nodes (7nm or below).
- Education
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering or Computer Science.
- Visa sponsorship
- River AI sponsors visas; it cannot guarantee success for every candidate or role.
About the job
Architects and validates performance models and simulators for custom AI accelerator silicon, guiding hardware and software optimization.
What you'll do
- Develop high-performance hardware models and simulators; explore architectural changes and analyze their impact on performance.
- Profile AI kernels and software stacks, identify bottlenecks, and collaborate with compiler, kernel, and RTL teams on hardware-software co-design.
- Validate performance models against RTL and pre-silicon emulators.
What they ask for
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science.
- 5+ years practical industry experience working with advanced process nodes (7nm or below).
- Expert proficiency in C/C++ or event-driven simulation environments like SystemC.
- Experience with compiler transformations, high-performance kernels, computer architecture, and hardware performance profiling.
Nice to have
- Hands-on experience in pre-silicon RTL/emulator and/or post-silicon performance validation.
- Knowledge or experience of QEMU models for pre-silicon software development.
Pay
$200,000 - $420,000 USD annual base salary
Tools
C++, SystemC, LLVM, GCC, XLA, CUDA, Triton, QEMU
AI focus
Develops and evaluates custom AI accelerator hardware and optimizes its performance on AI models and kernels.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative