Performance Modeling Engineer

Etched was founded on the belief that new hardware will be needed to run human- and superhuman-level artificial intelligence. Our ASIC systems deliver orders of magnitude higher performance than conventional AI chips. Etched is actively developing Sohu , an ASIC exclusively for transformers, which will enable products that would be impossible with GPUs, like real-time video generation models and extremely deep chain-of-thought reasoning. And we're bringing this technology to market in months, not years. Sohu is hard-coded for individual model architectures and only supports transformers, but has an order of magnitude more throughput and lower latency than a B200.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Develop and own SoC functional models from architecture to deployment, including integration with infrastructure, thorough testing, and debugging.

• Collaborate closely with architecture, RTL design, design verification, emulation, and software teams to ensure alignment and performance.

• Innovate tooling and infrastructure to enhance usability and effectiveness for internal and external partners.

• Optimize model and infrastructure performance, ensuring scalability for real-world AI workloads.

• Create software that is well-documented, maintainable, and reusable , ensuring longevity and ease of future development.

• Simulate performance of existing and upcoming state-of-the-art (SOTA) Transformer models on our ASIC architecture vs other alternatives (GPUs, TPUs etc)

WE’RE LOOKING FOR ENGINEERS WITH

• Expert knowledge in functional modeling of ASICs (TPUs, GPUs, CPUs, or equiv. accelerators)

• Strong command of C++ for modeling with Python familiarity for scripting and automation.

• Insights bridging simulation to analysis of complex systems involving multiple domains (e.g., physical link IO / memory / chip firmware / system software / overall performance).

• High interest in learning transformer architecture, developing insight into AI hardware/software co-design.

• Passion for AI and a desire to push performance and efficiency boundaries.

Machine learning experience is not required. This role will provide opportunities to ramp on relevant ML concepts on the job.

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.

• 5 years of experience in software development with data structures/algorithms.

• 5 years of experience developing and testing software models/simulations of shipping ASICs.

• 3 years of experience modeling SoC relevant technologies (DRAM, HBM, I2C, SPI, PCIe, etc.).

Preferred qualifications:

• Master’s or PhD degree Computer Science, or a related technical field.

• Experience in computer architecture, SoC design, and RTL languages.

• Experience solving ambiguous problems.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

If you're a talented software engineer who's excited to shape the future of AI, we encourage you to apply!

To Apply

Please visit our website at etched.com/careers to submit your resume and cover letter.

Location: Cupertino, California