AI Model Optimization Engineer - California, Santa Clara, United States
$149,750 - $275,580 USD yearly
Originally posted 16 October 2026 by the employer.
About the role
Intel is seeking an AI Model Performance Optimization Engineer to help deliver high-performance AI solutions. You will enable, validate, benchmark, optimize, and debug AI models to ensure they run efficiently and accurately across Intel hardware platforms.
What you'll do
- Enable, validate, benchmark, and optimize AI models on Intel platforms.
- Analyze model performance and identify optimization opportunities.
- Debug issues across AI frameworks, software stacks, and hardware platforms.
- Develop and execute tests to ensure model functionality, accuracy, and performance.
- Collaborate with software, hardware, compiler, and architecture teams to solve technical challenges.
- Contribute code, bug fixes, documentation, and test coverage to internal and open-source projects.
What you'll need
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related technical discipline with 3+ years of hands-on experience in AI frameworks, algorithms, and programming OR Master's degree in the same field with 1+ years of experience.
- Programming in Python and/or C++.
- Experience with machine learning or deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
- Performance analysis, profiling and optimization.
Nice to have
- Linux and/or Windows operating systems.
- Git-based software development workflows.
- Experience with GenAI models (LLM, VLM, VLA) or OpenVINO.
- Understanding of parallel programming, preferably with experience in SYCL or OpenCL.
- Previous publications or contributions to AI research.
- Familiarity with OpenVINO or other AI inference frameworks.
- Experience contributing to open-source software projects.
Skills: AI model optimization, machine learning frameworks, performance analysis, PyTorch, TensorFlow
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 56-day median for Infrastructure/Platform Software roles.
Infrastructure/Platform Software · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
98
|
Median days open
56 d
|
Median salary
$220k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Intel Corporation | All employers we track in this specialty (98 roles · 29 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 7 | 98 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 204 | 6157 · 145 employers |
| Median days open | 23 d | 56 d (−33 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $220k |
Skills observed across this category: AI model optimization, machine learning frameworks, performance analysis, PyTorch, TensorFlow
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 21 open roles · median 55 d
- NVIDIA · 19 open roles · median 53 d
- AMD · 7 open roles · median 45 d
- Intel Corporation (this employer) · 6 open roles · median 30 d
- Micron Technology · 6 open roles · median 39 d
- NXP Semiconductors · 5 open roles · median 44 d
How we counted: 98 open Infrastructure/Platform Software (AI ML Hardware) roles from 29 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 16 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.