Runtime Engineer, Normal Computing

• Experience building runtimes, drivers, or hardware abstraction layers for accelerators or other non-standard hardware
• Strong systems programming in C++ or Rust: memory management, concurrency, and low-level performance
• Track record of owning a complex systems component end to end, from design through production, and driving technical decisions across teams
• Understanding of LLM inference workloads and what they demand of a runtime
• Comfort building software for hardware that is still evolving, from simulation through bring-up

Desirable

• Normal's hardware runs the most memory-bound parts of large-model inference inside memory itself, rather than shuttling weights to a processor
• The software that makes this programmable doesn't exist yet in any standard form
• The runtime is the layer the rest of that software runs through: it is how compiled programs get loaded, scheduled, and executed on our hardware
• You will own its design and much of its implementation, and set its technical direction
• This is a senior, hands-on role
• Our chip is pre-silicon, so you will build the runtime against our simulators and FPGA prototypes first, behind one interface, so that software above the runtime doesn't change when silicon arrives
• Runtime Architecture: Own the design of the runtime: device management, memory allocation and host-device transfer, executable loading, and command submission. Success means the compiler and serving layers program our hardware through one stable interface
• Hardware Abstraction: Hide the differences between simulators, FPGA prototypes, silicon, and later hardware generations behind that interface
• Device State: Manage the state that lives on our hardware between requests, such as resident model weights, so the serving layer can rely on it
• Performance: Keep runtime overhead off the critical path for LLM inference, measured by end-to-end latency and throughput
• Cross-Team Interfaces: Define the boundary with the compiler above the runtime, and with the driver and firmware below it, which our hardware team owns
• Technical Leadership: Set the runtime's technical direction, review designs that depend on it, and work with compiler and serving engineers so the interface serves them