Director of Software - Compilers & Kernels

Director of Software - Compilers & Kernels

Director of Software - Compilers & Kernels

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This range is provided by Acceler8 Talent. Your actual pay will be based on your skills and experience — talk with your recruiter to learn more.

Base pay range

$300,000.00/yr - $500,000.00/yr

Additional compensation types

Sign-on bonus and Stock options

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Director of Software - Compilers & Kernels

We're hiring a Director of Software to lead the Compilers and Kernels team working at the intersection of low-level systems and large-scale AI workloads. As Director of Software, you’ll architect and drive the software that powers custom AI accelerators designed for the modern data center. This isn’t a generalist leadership role—success depends on deep systems fluency, a track record of engineering execution, and the ability to scale teams and architecture in parallel.

This team is building vertically integrated compute systems, engineered from the ground up to support LLM inference at scale. That means custom silicon, optimized compilers, runtime libraries, and developer tooling—all in one stack. The work is production-focused, with real users and real constraints, and driven by a small team of engineers from places like Tesla, Google, and top research labs. The mission is simple: deliver unmatched performance per watt and dollar, without compromising software control.

As Director of Software, you’ll lead and scale the team responsible for everything from IR lowering and instruction scheduling to runtime kernel design and deployment toolchains. You’ll act as the key bridge between silicon, software, and AI infrastructure—driving forward architectural decisions while owning delivery. The role combines technical leadership with direct engineering influence in a high-accountability environment.

What we can offer you:

• Equity and compensation tied to long-term product and infrastructure success
• High autonomy with real influence over roadmap, architecture, and hiring
• Chance to build and shape the team from the ground up
• Collaboration with silicon, compiler, infra, and ML research groups
• Access to bleeding-edge hardware and software infrastructure
• Onsite in Mountain View or hybrid for exceptional candidates

Key responsibilities:

• Define and drive technical strategy across compilers, runtimes, and kernel development
• Lead and mentor a senior team of systems and performance engineers
• Own the full software path from compiler IR to kernel-level execution
• Optimize for latency, throughput, and power in real-world inference workloads
• Build internal tooling and developer infrastructure for deploying AI models
• Act as a representative for the team across the broader engineering org

You’ll work across AI accelerators , data center inference , LLVM , MLIR , SIMD , JIT compilation , kernel runtimes , Rust , C++ , and low-level performance tuning . This Director of Software role offers the chance to define how modern AI runs—starting at the compiler.

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Director

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Management

• Industries

  Semiconductor Manufacturing

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Inferred from the description for this job

Medical insurance

401(k)

Vision insurance

Pension plan

Paid paternity leave

Paid maternity leave

Child care support

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