Etched · 2 days ago
Performance Characterization Engineer
San Jose, CA
Full-time
Onsite
Senior Level
$150K/yr - $275K/yrEtched is building the world’s first AI inference system purpose-built for transformers. As a Senior Performance Characterization Engineer, you will lead the design and development of a performance analysis tool for their ML accelerator, helping to identify performance bottlenecks and enhance workload behavior understanding.
AI InfrastructureArtificial Intelligence (AI)ComputerHardwareSemiconductor
Responsibilities
Tool Architecture & Design: Lead the design and architecture of a comprehensive performance analysis suite, including data collection mechanisms, data processing pipelines, analysis engines, and user interfaces (CLI and/or GUI)
Low-Level Data Collection: Develop robust methods to capture performance data directly from our custom ML accelerator hardware (e.g., hardware performance counters, execution unit status, memory access patterns) via driver interfaces or other mechanisms
Host & System Tracing: Implement tracing for host-side API calls (runtime libraries, driver interactions) and system-level events (CPU activity, PCIe traffic, memory usage, network contention) related to Sohu workloads
Data Correlation & Synchronization: Design and implement techniques to accurately correlate performance events across the host CPU, device driver, PCIe bus, and multiple accelerators, ensuring precise time synchronization
Performance Analysis Engine: Build analysis modules to automatically interpret collected trace and counter data, identifying key performance limiters (e.g., compute-bound, memory bandwidth-bound, latency-bound, PCIe-bound, specific hardware bottlenecks)
Visualization & Reporting: Develop intuitive visualizations (timelines, dependency graphs, resource utilization charts, statistical summaries) to clearly communicate performance characteristics and bottlenecks to users
Collaboration & Support: Work closely with hardware architects, firmware engineers, driver developers, compiler engineers, and ML application engineers to understand their needs, define tool requirements, and provide expert guidance on performance analysis and optimization using the tool
Qualification
Required
Strong proficiency in C/C++ and Python
Deep understanding of computer architecture (CPU, GPU, accelerators), memory hierarchies (caches, DRAM), and interconnects (especially PCIe)
Proven experience in low-level performance analysis, profiling, and bottleneck identification on complex hardware systems (GPUs, CPUs, FPGAs, or custom ASICs)
Experience with performance analysis tools (e.g., NVIDIA Nsight, AMD uProf, Intel VTune, perf, Tracy, ETW)
Solid understanding of operating system internals (Linux preferred), including scheduling, memory management, and driver interaction
Experience working close to hardware, potentially reading performance counters or interacting directly with device drivers
Preferred
Direct experience developing performance analysis or debugging tools
Experience with ML accelerator architectures (GPUs, TPUs, etc.)
Experience with kernel-mode driver development (Linux or Windows)
Understanding of compiler internals, code generation, and optimization
In-depth knowledge of the PCIe protocol and analysis tools (PCIe analyzers)
Experience with firmware or embedded systems development
Experience with hardware description languages (Verilog, VHDL) or hardware verification
Benefits
Full medical, dental, and vision packages, with generous premium coverage
Housing subsidy of $2,000/month for those living within walking distance of the office
Daily lunch and dinner in our office
Relocation support for those moving to West San Jose
Company
Etched
Building the hardware for superintelligence
Founded in 2022
51-200 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Etched has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (9)
2024 (11)
2023 (1)
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageTotal Funding
$625.36MKey Investors
StripesPrimary Venture Partners
2026-01-14Series Unknown· $500M
2024-06-25Series A· $120M
2023-05-16Seed· $5.36M
Leadership Team
Chris Zhu
Co-Founder
Robert Wachen
Co-Founder and President
Recent News
2026-01-16
2026-01-16
Soma Capital
2026-01-07
Company data provided by crunchbase