Senior Principal AI Performance Engineer - San Jose, California, United States
$262,700 - $355,400 USD yearly
Originally posted 22 June 2026 by the employer.
About the role
As a Senior Principal AI Performance Engineer, you will work directly with customers to optimize AI workloads targeting Arm technology, focusing on inference performance and power efficiency. You will develop kernel level implementations across a range of DNN models and use performance insights to influence Arm's IP and tooling roadmaps.
What you'll do
- Develop optimized solutions for AI workloads from kernel level to system level to meet customer application requirements. - Create production-quality reference implementations, documentation, and performance-focused technical content. - Act as a technical bridge between customers and internal engineering teams to drive resolution of complex performance issues. - Influence Arm's IP and software roadmap using insights gathered from real-world customer use cases. - Present progress, technical analysis, and recommendations to audiences ranging from engineers to senior leadership.
What you'll need
- Experience optimizing DNNs in Triton, CUDA, or another kernel-level programming language. - Deep understanding of parallel computing, memory hierarchies, and performance optimization techniques for DNNs. - Strong programming skills in Python and C++. - Solid experience with modern AI frameworks and execution models. - Experience with profiling and analysis tools.
Nice to have
- Experience in a customer-facing or field engineering environment. - Experience within the Arm ecosystem. - Background in AI performance optimization for edge devices.
Skills: ai workloads, kernel level implementations, dnn models, performance optimization, arm technology
This role has been open 120 days — well above the 85-day median for AI/ML Hardware Engineering roles.
AI/ML Hardware Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
508
|
Median days open
85 d
|
Median salary
$236k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Arm Holdings | All employers we track in this specialty (508 roles · 76 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 9 | 508 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 83 | 6298 · 145 employers |
| Median days open | 120 d | 85 d (+35 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $236k |
Skills observed across this category: ai workloads, kernel level implementations, dnn models, performance optimization, arm technology
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 104 open roles · median 113 d
- NVIDIA · 91 open roles · median 57 d
- AMD · 38 open roles · median 95 d
- Micron Technology · 27 open roles · median 57 d
- Analog Devices · 18 open roles · median 40 d
- Mobileye · 18 open roles · median 85 d
How we counted: 508 open AI/ML Hardware Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 76 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 22 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.