AI Forward Deployed Engineer Lead

About Positron AI

Positron AI is building next-generation AI inference accelerators designed from the ground up for low-latency, high-throughput large language model inference. Our first-generation ASIC, Asimov, is a cutting-edge accelerator targeting frontier AI workloads, with additional generations already underway.

Role Overview

The Accelerator Platform Software (APS) team owns the software closest to the metal: the host-side platform layer, the device-side runtime and firmware, the Linux-based device OS, the simulation and emulation environments we use to build software ahead of silicon, performance and debug tooling, and product security. If it touches the accelerator, it goes through us. We build with AI-native workflows, where agentic coding tools, a shared skills repository, and automation are core to how the team ships.

This role sits on the Director's staff and owns making that leverage real across every sub-team. Most companies would staff an entire developer-systems team for this mission. We are hiring one person and giving them the whole thing. You will be the engineer who makes AI-assisted development actually work in a shop where the code talks to registers and a wrong answer means a hung device, not a bad paragraph. You will embed with each sub-team, find where their week goes, and build agentic workflows that give it back, then prove the gains with evaluations rather than enthusiasm. You report directly to the Director of APS, and your roadmap is yours to define from the friction you observe.

Key Responsibilities

Forward deployment and workflow building

• Embed with APS sub-teams across firmware, runtime, performance, and simulation, and build agentic workflows into how they actually work, including coding, debugging, triage, test generation, and keeping documentation honest.
• Pair directly with senior engineers on their real work, earning adoption by making their week measurably better.

Tooling and shared infrastructure

• Own the shared skills repository and internal agent tooling that turn hard-won team knowledge into reusable, evaluated automation.
• Wire agents into CI and everyday engineering surfaces, including code review, log and trace triage, and silicon-debug assistance.

Quality and evaluation

• Build and maintain evaluations so workflow quality is measured rather than guessed, and regression-test the automation like any other production system.

Standards and culture

• Set the standard for what good AI-assisted engineering looks like where correctness is non-negotiable, and champion that AI-native culture across the team.
• Identify where AI leverage genuinely pays off and where it does not, and say so plainly.

Required Qualifications

• A strong software engineering background, with systems or infrastructure experience strongly preferred; this is an engineering role, not a prompt-writing role.
• Hands-on, expert experience using agentic development tools such as OpenAI Codex and Claude Code, integrating LLM APIs, and building evaluations.
• A shipped track record of internal tooling or developer-productivity work that engineers actually adopted.
• The credibility and patience to win over skeptical senior systems engineers with results rather than demos.
• Self-directed working style, comfortable defining your own roadmap from observed friction without a team around you.
• Excellent written communication skills, since we run on written plans, design docs, and async updates.

Preferred Qualifications

• A low-level or hardware-adjacent background, enough to be credible pairing on a kernel driver or a trace-analysis session.
• Experience with CI/CD systems, developer platforms, or build and release engineering.
• Prior forward-deployed, solutions-engineering, or platform-team experience.

Leveling & Scope

While this role is currently posted at a specific level, we are a growth-oriented organization and are open to hiring at a more senior level for the right candidate. Please note that this job description serves as a focused but generalized overview of the role; specific responsibilities and impact expectations will be tailored to the experience and seniority of the final hire.

Why Join Us?

• You will own a mission most companies spread across an entire team, with a roadmap you define and a direct line to the Director of APS.
• You will shape what AI-native engineering looks like at a company building production AI inference hardware, where your tooling directly accelerates the software that turns silicon into a product.

Compensation & Benefits

The base salary range for this role is $325,000 – $400,000.

Please note that the figures provided represent the base salary range only and do not include other elements of our total compensation package, equity, or comprehensive benefits.

At Positron AI, we value the unique expertise each candidate brings. While the range above reflects our typical expectation for the position, we reserve the flexibility to exceed this range for candidates whose specialized skills, significant experience, or unique qualifications fall outside the standard scope of the role. Final offers are determined based on a variety of factors, including internal equity, and individual impact.

Benefits & Perks

We want you to do your best work and feel confident that you and your family are taken care of. That means comprehensive coverage, real time to rest, and support for your future.

Health and wellness

• Fully company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your dependents
• Company-paid life and disability coverage, with voluntary options to add more
• Supplemental hospital, critical illness, and accident coverage available

Time off and flexibility

• Unlimited paid time off, and we encourage everyone to truly unplug and recharge
• 13 paid company holidays
• Remote-first culture with a company-provided computer and home office setup

Compensation and future

• Competitive salary and equity
• 401(k) with company matching, eligible from day one

Visa Support

This position is open to candidates currently authorized to work in the U.S. We cannot provide new visa sponsorship for this role but are open to facilitating H-1B visa transfers for eligible candidates.

Equal Opportunity Employer. If you're excited about the role but don't meet every bullet, we'd still love to hear from you.