[Hiring] MAX Kernel Engineering Manager @Modular

Role Description

MAX is Modular's inference tech stack, built to run GenAI models fast across NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, Trainium, TPU and more. The MAX Kernel team is the performance foundation of that stack, developing kernels using Mojo, GEMM, attention (MHA/MLA/MSA), MoE routing and grouped matmul, and the portable tile abstractions that let one kernel lower to many targets.

As the Engineering Manager of the MAX Kernel team, you will:

• Lead, hire, coach and grow a team of ~12 kernel engineers across NVIDIA, AMD and ASIC hardwares; own career development, performance management and team health.
• Own the MAX kernel roadmap and delivery: match or beat the performance of other open-source kernel libraries on each business essential model × hardware target.
• Support portable kernel architecture (TileTensor / TensorEngine / TileIO, reusable building blocks such as MegaFFN and the attention family) together with tech leads.
• Partner cross-functionally with Framework, Serve, Compiler/Runtime, Hardware Enablement and Qualcomm kernel teams on priorities, interfaces and escalations.
• Advance AI-assisted kernel development (kernel agents, fuzz verification, playbooks) and the kernel engineering community across org boundaries.

Qualifications

• 3+ years as an engineering manager leading GPU kernel, compiler, HPC, or ML performance engineering teams (minimum requirement).
• Strong cross-functional communication; able to drive technical decisions with tech leads and communicate status, risks and tradeoffs to engineering leadership and customers.
• Track record of hiring, retaining and growing senior kernel or performance engineers.
• Working knowledge of writing and optimizing GPU/accelerator kernels (CUDA, HIP/ROCm, Triton, CUTLASS/CuTe or similar).
• Deep understanding of profiling, benchmarking, and roofline analysis.

Requirements

• Experience with Mojo or other kernel and tile-level programming models (Triton, TileLang, CuTe) - helpful, but not required.
• Multi-target experience beyond NVIDIA: AMD, NPUs/ASICs or edge/on-device.
• Experience with AI-assisted or agentic kernel development.
• Open-source contributions to kernel libraries or inference engines.

Benefits

• Amazing Team: We are a progressive and agile team with some of the industry’s best engineering and product leaders.
• World-class Benefits: Comprehensive healthcare coverage, retirement and savings programs, employee stock purchase opportunities, paid time off, wellbeing resources, family support programs, and learning and development opportunities.
• Competitive Compensation: Very strong compensation packages, including RSU grants.
• Team Building Events: Regular team onsites and local meetups in Los Altos, CA as well as different cities; traveling 2-4 times a year is expected for all roles.