# Founding Kernel Engineer

**Company:** [Luminal](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/luminal)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA, US
**Work mode:** On-site
**Seniority:** Entry
**Employment type:** Full Time
**Salary:** USD 150K–250K/yr
**Category:** Software
**Listed:** 2026-11-05

[View and apply on Zero G Talent](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/luminal/founding-kernel-engineer-120827)

## What you'll do

- Research and build faster kernels for AI workloads
- Investigate performance bottlenecks with the compiler team
- Take optimizations through correctness checks and benchmarking
- Execute optimizations on real hardware
- Develop agent-driven systems for kernel research

## What you need

- Hands-on experience developing GPU kernels
- CUDA, Triton, or GPU instruction sets experience
- MLIR/LLVM or PyTorch backends knowledge
- Hardware performance analysis and benchmarking skills
- Rust or open-source compiler contributions

## Job description

### Qualifications

-   Hands-on experience developing GPU kernels.

### Nice to haves

-   Prior work on kernel autoresearch frameworks is a **very strong positive**.
-   Experience with ML compilers is a **strong positive**, but not required.
-   Hardware performance analysis, memory hierarchies, parallel execution, and benchmarking.
-   CUDA, Triton, GPU instruction sets, or compiler systems such as MLIR/LLVM and PyTorch backends.
-   Rust, open-source compiler contributions, or work on other accelerators.

No degree requirement. Researchers, recent PhDs, and candidates with substantial relevant projects are welcome.

### Company

Luminal (YC S25) builds an AI compiler and serving stack that optimizes models for faster, more efficient execution across accelerators. We're a small team working in person in San Francisco.

### Role

Research and build faster kernels for AI workloads. You'll work closely with the compiler team, investigate performance bottlenecks, and take optimizations through correctness checks, benchmarking, and execution on real hardware.

Our focus includes:

-   Agent-driven systems that write, test, and improve kernels.
-   Automated kernel research and search-based performance optimization.
-   More efficient execution for inference and LLM training.

Candidates who require a US visa are welcome to apply.

## Other open roles at Luminal

- [Head of Growth](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/luminal/head-of-growth-120828) — San Francisco, CA, US
- [Senior Compiler Engineer](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/luminal/senior-compiler-engineer-94688) — San Francisco, CA, US
- [Compiler Engineer](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/luminal/compiler-engineer-80694) — San Francisco, CA, US
- [Cloud Inference Engineer](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/luminal/cloud-inference-engineer-83575) — San Francisco, CA, US

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*Source: [Zero G Talent](https://zerogtalent.com), the job board for space, defense, AI, robotics and frontier-tech companies.*