{"schemaVersion":"jobsearcher.job.v1","id":"bea4fbb89fe7390751f563df","url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/bea4fbb89fe7390751f563df","canonicalUrl":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/bea4fbb89fe7390751f563df","title":"Research Engineer","description":"Who We Are\nLightning AI is the company behind PyTorch Lightning. Founded in 2019, we build an end-to-end platform for developing, training, and deploying AI systems—designed to take ideas from research to production with less friction.\nThrough our merger with Voltage Park, a neocloud and AI Factory, Lightning AI combines developer-first software with cost-efficient, large-scale compute. Teams get the tools they need for experimentation, training, and production inference, with security, observability, and control built in.\nWe serve solo researchers, startups, and large enterprises. Lightning AI operates globally with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and London, and is backed by Coatue, Index Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and Firstminute.\nOur Values\nMove Fast: We act with speed and precision, breaking down big challenges into achievable steps.\nFocus: We complete one goal at a time with care, collaborating as a team to deliver features with precision.\nBalance: Sustained performance comes from rest and recovery. We ensure a healthy work-life balance to keep you at your best.\nCraftsmanship: Innovation through excellence. Every detail matters, and we take pride in mastering our craft.\nMinimal: Simplicity drives our innovation. We eliminate complexity through discipline and focus on what truly matters.\nWhat We Are Looking For\nWe are seeking a highly skilled Research Engineer to work on optimizing training and inference workloads on compute accelerators and clusters, through the Lightning Thunder compiler and the broader PyTorch Lightning ecosystem. This role sits at the intersection of deep learning research, compiler development, and large-scale system optimization. You'll be shaping technology that pushes the boundaries of model performance and efficiency, creating foundational software that will impact the entire machine learning ecosystem.\n\nYou will be joining the Engineering Team and report to our Tech Lead. This is a hybrid role based in our New York City, San Francisco, or London office, with an in-office requirement of two days per week. The salary range for this role is $180,000-$250,000.\nWhat You'll Do\nDevelop performance-oriented model optimizations at multiple levels:\nGraph-level (e.g., operator fusion, kernel scheduling, memory planning)\nKernel-level (CUDA, Triton, custom operators for specialized hardware)\nSystem-level (distributed training across GPUs/TPUs, inference serving at scale)\nAdvance the Thunder compiler by building optimization passes, graph transformations, and integration hooks to accelerate training and inference workloads.\nWork across the software stack to ensure optimizations are accessible to end users through clean APIs, automated tooling, and seamless integration with PyTorch Lightning.\nDesign and implement profiling and debugging tools to analyze model execution, identify bottlenecks, and guide optimization strategies.\nCollaborate with hardware vendors and ecosystem partners to ensure Thunder runs efficiently across diverse backends (NVIDIA, AMD, TPU, specialized accelerators).\nContribute to open-source projects by developing new features, improving documentation, and supporting community adoption.\nEngage with researchers and engineers in the community, providing guidance on performance tuning and advocating for Thunder as the go-to optimization layer in ML workflows.\nWork cross-functionally with Lightning's product and engineering teams to ensure compiler and optimization improvements align with the broader product vision.\nWhat You'll Need\nStrong expertise with deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch\nHands-on experience with model optimization techniques, including graph-level optimizations, quantization, pruning, mixed precision, or memory-efficient training.\nKnowledge of distributed systems and parallelism strategies (data/model/pipeline parallelism, checkpointing, elastic scaling).\nFamiliarity with software engineering practices: designing APIs, building robust tooling, testing, CI/CD for performance-sensitive systems.\nExcellent collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to partner across research, engineering, and external contributors.\nBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering\nNice-to-Haves\nExperience with CUDA, Triton, or other GPU programming models for developing custom kernels.\nDeep understanding of deep learning compiler internals (IR design, operator fusion, scheduling, optimization passes) or proven work in performance-critical software.\nProven track record contributing to open-source projects in ML, HPC, or compiler domains.\nAdvanced degree (Master's or PhD) in machine learning, compilers, or systems highly preferred.\n\nBenefits and Perks\nWe offer competitive base salaries and equity with a 25% one year cliff and monthly vesting thereafter. For our international employees, we work with our EOR to pay you in your local currency and provide equitable benefits across the globe.\nIn the US, we offer:\nMedical, dental and vision\nLife and AD&D insurance\nFlexible paid time off including winter closure\nPaid family leave benefits\n$500 one time home office stipend\n$1,000 annual learning & development stipend\n100% Citibike membership (NYC only)\n$45/month gym membership\nAdditional various medical and mental health services\nAt Lightning AI, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace. We believe that diverse teams drive innovation and create better products. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. We are dedicated to building a culture where everyone can thrive and contribute to their fullest potential.","company":"Lightningai","rawCompany":"lightningai","city":"Millbrae","state":"CA","isRemote":false,"isActive":false,"createdAt":"2026-07-16T14:10:26.971Z","occupations":[{"code":"15-1221.00","title":"Computer and Information Research Scientists","slug":"computer-and-information-research-scientists"},{"code":"15-1252.00","title":"Software Developers","slug":"software-developers"},{"code":"15-1299.08","title":"Computer Systems Engineers/Architects","slug":"computer-systems-engineers-architects"}],"industries":[{"code":"513210","title":"Software Publishers","slug":"software-publishers"},{"code":"541715","title":"Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology)","slug":"research-and-development-in-the-physical-engineering-and-life-sciences-except-nanotechnology-and-biotechnology"},{"code":"541512","title":"Computer Systems Design Services","slug":"computer-systems-design-services"}],"jobPosting":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"JobPosting","title":"Research Engineer","description":"Who We Are\nLightning AI is the company behind PyTorch Lightning. Founded in 2019, we build an end-to-end platform for developing, training, and deploying AI systems—designed to take ideas from research to production with less friction.\nThrough our merger with Voltage Park, a neocloud and AI Factory, Lightning AI combines developer-first software with cost-efficient, large-scale compute. Teams get the tools they need for experimentation, training, and production inference, with security, observability, and control built in.\nWe serve solo researchers, startups, and large enterprises. Lightning AI operates globally with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and London, and is backed by Coatue, Index Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and Firstminute.\nOur Values\nMove Fast: We act with speed and precision, breaking down big challenges into achievable steps.\nFocus: We complete one goal at a time with care, collaborating as a team to deliver features with precision.\nBalance: Sustained performance comes from rest and recovery. We ensure a healthy work-life balance to keep you at your best.\nCraftsmanship: Innovation through excellence. Every detail matters, and we take pride in mastering our craft.\nMinimal: Simplicity drives our innovation. We eliminate complexity through discipline and focus on what truly matters.\nWhat We Are Looking For\nWe are seeking a highly skilled Research Engineer to work on optimizing training and inference workloads on compute accelerators and clusters, through the Lightning Thunder compiler and the broader PyTorch Lightning ecosystem. This role sits at the intersection of deep learning research, compiler development, and large-scale system optimization. You'll be shaping technology that pushes the boundaries of model performance and efficiency, creating foundational software that will impact the entire machine learning ecosystem.\n\nYou will be joining the Engineering Team and report to our Tech Lead. This is a hybrid role based in our New York City, San Francisco, or London office, with an in-office requirement of two days per week. The salary range for this role is $180,000-$250,000.\nWhat You'll Do\nDevelop performance-oriented model optimizations at multiple levels:\nGraph-level (e.g., operator fusion, kernel scheduling, memory planning)\nKernel-level (CUDA, Triton, custom operators for specialized hardware)\nSystem-level (distributed training across GPUs/TPUs, inference serving at scale)\nAdvance the Thunder compiler by building optimization passes, graph transformations, and integration hooks to accelerate training and inference workloads.\nWork across the software stack to ensure optimizations are accessible to end users through clean APIs, automated tooling, and seamless integration with PyTorch Lightning.\nDesign and implement profiling and debugging tools to analyze model execution, identify bottlenecks, and guide optimization strategies.\nCollaborate with hardware vendors and ecosystem partners to ensure Thunder runs efficiently across diverse backends (NVIDIA, AMD, TPU, specialized accelerators).\nContribute to open-source projects by developing new features, improving documentation, and supporting community adoption.\nEngage with researchers and engineers in the community, providing guidance on performance tuning and advocating for Thunder as the go-to optimization layer in ML workflows.\nWork cross-functionally with Lightning's product and engineering teams to ensure compiler and optimization improvements align with the broader product vision.\nWhat You'll Need\nStrong expertise with deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch\nHands-on experience with model optimization techniques, including graph-level optimizations, quantization, pruning, mixed precision, or memory-efficient training.\nKnowledge of distributed systems and parallelism strategies (data/model/pipeline parallelism, checkpointing, elastic scaling).\nFamiliarity with software engineering practices: designing APIs, building robust tooling, testing, CI/CD for performance-sensitive systems.\nExcellent collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to partner across research, engineering, and external contributors.\nBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering\nNice-to-Haves\nExperience with CUDA, Triton, or other GPU programming models for developing custom kernels.\nDeep understanding of deep learning compiler internals (IR design, operator fusion, scheduling, optimization passes) or proven work in performance-critical software.\nProven track record contributing to open-source projects in ML, HPC, or compiler domains.\nAdvanced degree (Master's or PhD) in machine learning, compilers, or systems highly preferred.\n\nBenefits and Perks\nWe offer competitive base salaries and equity with a 25% one year cliff and monthly vesting thereafter. For our international employees, we work with our EOR to pay you in your local currency and provide equitable benefits across the globe.\nIn the US, we offer:\nMedical, dental and vision\nLife and AD&D insurance\nFlexible paid time off including winter closure\nPaid family leave benefits\n$500 one time home office stipend\n$1,000 annual learning & development stipend\n100% Citibike membership (NYC only)\n$45/month gym membership\nAdditional various medical and mental health services\nAt Lightning AI, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace. We believe that diverse teams drive innovation and create better products. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. We are dedicated to building a culture where everyone can thrive and contribute to their fullest potential.","datePosted":"2026-07-16T14:10:26.971Z","dateModified":"2026-07-16T14:10:26.971Z","hiringOrganization":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Lightningai","sameAs":"https://jobsearcher.com"},"jobLocation":{"@type":"Place","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","addressLocality":"Millbrae","addressRegion":"CA","addressCountry":"US"}},"identifier":{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"JobSearcher","value":"bea4fbb89fe7390751f563df"},"url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/bea4fbb89fe7390751f563df"}}