Software Engineer, Kernels & Performance

About us
Character's mission is to empower everyone with AGI. Our vision is to enable people with our technology so that they can use Character.AI any moment of any day.
Character.AI is one of the world's leading personal AI platforms. Founded in 2021 by AI pioneers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, Character.AI is a full-stack AI company with a globally scaled direct-to-consumer platform. As of 2023 that platform was #2 in the space in user engagement. Character.AI is uniquely centered around people, letting users personalize their experience by interacting with AI "Characters." The company achieved unicorn status in 2023 and was named Google Play's AI App of the Year.
Noam co-invented the key tech powering LLMs and was recently named to TIME100's Most Influential People in AI list. TIME called him "one of the most important and impactful people of the space's past, present, and future." Daniel created and led LaMDA, the breakthrough conversational tech project currently powering Bard.
To learn more, please visit beta.character.ai.
About the role
We're looking for a seasoned Research Engineer with expertise in GPU computing to design high-performance kernels for our training and inference workloads using CUDA/CUTLASS, C++, and Python.
Responsibilities:

• Using the capabilities of GPUs and other accelerators to the fullest extent to make our custom model architectures fast and efficient for training and inference
• Deliver and maintain high performance GPU and communication kernels that increase utilization and also work well in a distributed training and inference environment
• Collaborating closely with ML Engineers and Researchers to develop new architectures and algorithms that are aware of I/O & Hardware constraints
• Communicating with hardware vendors to advise on design of software or future hardware, while also making sure we are keeping up to date with the cutting edge
• Working on quantization or any form of low-precision arithmetic to increase throughput without degradation in performance

Requirements:

• Strong C/C++ and Python coding skills
• Deep understanding of GPUs or other accelerators, along with the ability to effectively profile and analyze existing or new kernels
• Experience with CUDA/CUTLASS (and experience with Triton-like compilers is a plus)
• 3+ years of relevant industry experience and experience working with hardware developers
• MS/PhD in Computer Science and Engineering with a specialization in Computer Architecture, Parallel Computing, Compilers or other System

Character is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status. We value diversity and encourage applicants from a range of backgrounds to apply.