Staff Systems Engineer, AI/ML - United States
$106,000 - $205,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 25 August 2026 by the employer.
Lead workload-driven architecture strategy for AI/ML systems.
About the role
What you'll do
- Own the end-to-end process of workload characterization and hardware performance analysis for AI/ML systems.
- Lead architectural discussions with hardware teams (CPU, SoC, memory, interconnect) and software teams (compilers, runtimes, ML frameworks).
- Define the performance KPI framework for AI/ML workloads across the product portfolio.
- Present findings and recommendations to senior engineering leadership and product stakeholders.
What you'll need
- BS or MS (MS preferred) in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent, with 4+ years of industry experience in systems engineering, hardware architecture, ML systems, or performance engineering.
- Exceptional mathematical reasoning, including deriving and defending analytical performance models.
- Deep expertise in CPU and SoC architecture, including memory hierarchies, out-of-order execution, vector/SIMD pipelines, and power management.
- Experience building and validating analytical performance models (roofline, bandwidth-latency, first-principles throughput models).
- Experience with AI/ML acceleration on edge devices (NPUs, dedicated inference accelerators, DSP-based pipelines) and HW/SW co-design challenges.
Nice to have
- Familiarity with AI compiler infrastructure, including MLIR-based toolchains, IREE, TVM.
- Prior experience defining or co-defining SoC architecture requirements from workload analysis.
- Contributions to MLIR/IREE or similar compiler infrastructure in a performance or backend capacity.
- Knowledge of RISC-V architecture and Vector/Matrix extensions.
Skills: workload characterization, hardware performance analysis, AI/ML systems, SoC architecture decisions, HW/SW co-optimization
This role has been open 38 days — well below the 73-day median for AI/ML Hardware Engineering roles.
AI/ML Hardware Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
510
|
Median days open
73 d
|
Median salary
$225k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | GlobalFoundries | All employers we track in this specialty (510 roles · 76 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 6 | 510 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 37 | 5930 · 145 employers |
| Median days open | 101 d | 73 d (+28 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $225k |
Skills observed across this category: workload characterization, hardware performance analysis, AI/ML systems, SoC architecture decisions, HW/SW co-optimization
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 106 open roles · median 106 d
- NVIDIA · 84 open roles · median 72 d
- AMD · 42 open roles · median 66 d
- Micron Technology · 31 open roles · median 56 d
- Mobileye · 20 open roles · median 69 d
- NXP Semiconductors · 15 open roles · median 59 d
How we counted: 510 open AI/ML Hardware Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 76 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 2 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.