Software Engineer Senior/Principal - Control Plane

About Positron AI

Positron AI specializes in developing custom hardware systems to accelerate AI inference. These inference systems offer significant performance and efficiency gains over traditional GPU-based systems, delivering advantages in both performance per dollar and performance per watt. Positron AI exists to create the world's best AI inference systems.

Role Overview

We are looking for a Senior or Principal Software Engineer to contribute to control-plane architecture and hands-on development for Positron AI inference systems. You will write software that connects low-level hardware capabilities to system management, diagnostics, security, and firmware updates. Go is our primary implementation language, with C, C++, Python, Bash, and other languages used where they fit the system boundary.

This role can fit a senior/principal software engineer or systems architect who remains a strong, current coder and wants ownership grounded in production implementation. You will set technical direction, define stable secure interfaces, and write, review, profile, and debug production code alongside the team.

The scope spans a wide swath of the platform. You will own substantial features end to end, from problem definition and architecture through implementation, integration, testing, and production validation.

Key Responsibilities

Platform Architecture and Implementation

• Contribute to the architecture and evolution of the system management services and APIs that control hardware state, resources, diagnostics, updates, and workloads.
• Design, write, and review production Go, reaching for C, C++, Python, or Bash at the boundaries where they are the right tools.
• Work across the full stack, from web applications and management APIs through Linux services, hardware interfaces, and low-level protocols.
• Refactor critical subsystems to improve modularity, testability, and fault isolation, and to support future hardware generations.
• Define stable interfaces and data models for orchestration, diagnostics, management tooling, and customer-facing workflows.

Hardware and System Integration

• Partner with internal and external hardware, firmware, and systems engineers to turn low-level capabilities into reliable platform services.
• Debug failures at the board and system level across CPU, memory, drives, USB, I2C, SMBus, PCIe, and in-system accelerators, including FPGAs.
• Build safe control paths for reboot state, accelerator reset and recovery, hardware health, and resource allocation.
• Integrate management-controller capabilities, hardware counters, and telemetry into platform APIs and operational workflows.

Diagnostics, Observability, and Reliability

• Expose diagnostics through platform APIs with persistent results, searchable reporting, and periodic archiving.
• Build comprehensive metrics, logs, and alerts with configurable sinks, including OpenTelemetry-compatible systems.
• Integrate external health probes so failed hardware or workloads can be isolated, rescheduled, and recovered safely.
• Profile system behavior, diagnose performance regressions, and drive root causes through to resolution.

Security and Software Lifecycle

• Implement certificate management, role-based access control, pluggable authentication, and integrations with HSM-backed secret stores.
• Build secure boot, signed-artifact, software and firmware update, and rollback workflows.
• Secure model acquisition and sideloading with appropriate authentication, secret management, and status reporting.

Technical Leadership and Engineering Practices

• Translate product and hardware roadmaps into software architecture, sequenced execution plans, and clear technical decisions.
• Lead design and code reviews across software, firmware, hardware, and security boundaries.
• Mentor engineers while remaining directly responsible for critical implementation and debugging work.
• Own complex platform features end to end, define what done looks like, and carry them from architecture through implementation, integration, and production validation.
• Apply AI-assisted tools to accelerate implementation, test generation, debugging, profiling, code review, and documentation while maintaining engineering rigor.

Lab Support and Documentation

• Support system assembly, bring-up, troubleshooting, and racking servers.
• Produce architecture documents, test procedures, runbooks, and release notes, and take on related responsibilities as needed to help the team ship and support the product.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, including technical ownership of production systems software or infrastructure.
• A background in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science, through a relevant degree or equivalent practical experience with digital systems and board-level interfaces.
• Strong production experience with Go, spanning concurrent services, API design, testing, profiling, and operational debugging.
• A current hands-on coding practice, writing and debugging production code rather than operating only at the architecture or review level.
• Proficiency in at least one additional language used in systems work, such as C, C++, Python, or Bash.
• Broad technical knowledge across web applications, distributed services, Linux systems, device interfaces, and low-level protocols.
• Deep Linux systems knowledge, including processes, networking, storage, resource management, services, and system diagnostics.
• Hands-on experience building software that interfaces with hardware through drivers, firmware APIs, management controllers, PCIe, I2C, or comparable boundaries.
• Demonstrated ability to design reliable distributed systems, control planes, or workload-management services.
• Strong debugging and root-cause analysis skills across application, operating system, firmware, and hardware boundaries.
• Experience designing security into platform software, including authentication, authorization, certificates, secrets, and update integrity.
• A track record of carrying substantial features from architecture through implementation, integration, testing, and production operation.
• Demonstrated technical leadership through architecture documents, design reviews, code reviews, mentoring, and cross-functional execution.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with BMC, IPMI, Redfish, embedded Linux, or comparable hardware management software.
• Familiarity with workload orchestration and service discovery systems such as Consul.
• Working knowledge of PKI, secure boot, HSMs, artifact signing, and software or firmware update systems.
• Exposure to observability systems such as OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, or equivalent.
• Experience with hardware accelerators, high-performance computing, or large-scale AI infrastructure.
• Broad-scope ownership experience outside a traditional engineering role, such as leading a small team end to end, bootstrapping a project, or running non-trivial self-hosted infrastructure.

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.

What Success Looks Like

Within one year, this person will have established a clear and scalable platform architecture, shipped major production Go implementations, improved hardware diagnostics and recovery, and made system security, updates, and fleet operations more predictable.

Why Join Us?

• Own the software layer that connects custom AI inference hardware to reliable system operations.
• Set architecture and implement critical production code in the same role.
• Work across hardware, firmware, systems software, orchestration, and security with direct influence on the product.

Compensation & Benefits

The base salary range for this role is Senior: $170,000 – $250,000, Principal: $250,000 - $325,000.

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, so you can truly unplug and recharge.
• 13 paid company holidays.
• A company-provided computer.

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.