Systems Software Engineer

Job Title

Systems Software Engineer

Role Summary

Join the Systems team to build and maintain the low-level software stack that bridges Quadric's General-Purpose Neural Processing Unit (GPNPU) hardware and higher-level SDKs. You will own components such as simulators, assemblers/loaders, debuggers, and C++ host APIs.

This role works closely with hardware and SDK engineers to deliver production-quality, low-latency tooling and abstractions for edge AI devices.

Experience Level

Mid-level - typically requires 5+ years of systems software experience (simulators, toolchains, debuggers, drivers, or performance-critical C++ libraries).

Responsibilities

Responsible for architecting, implementing, and maintaining foundational systems software for a new processor architecture.

• Maintain and optimize the instruction set simulator used for architecture validation and software development.
• Design and implement loader and assembler components, including ELF/binary format handling and efficient code loading.
• Develop and extend remote debugger backends to provide low-level visibility into device execution.
• Design, maintain, and document C++ host and core device APIs for SDKs and external users.
• Collaborate with hardware engineers to influence hardware/software co-design decisions based on simulator findings.
• Deliver production-ready, low-latency abstractions and debugging utilities relied on by internal and external developers.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience for immediate impact.

• 5+ years building systems software: simulators, toolchains, debuggers, drivers, or performance-critical C++ libraries.
• Strong modern C++ skills (C++17/20) and systems-level programming experience.
• Advanced knowledge of RAII, manual memory management, object lifetimes, ownership models, and memory access optimization.
• Proven ability to design and maintain clean abstraction layers and public APIs.
• Experience at the hardware/software boundary: architectural simulation, debugger internals, developer SDKs, low-level toolchains (assemblers/loaders/ELF), or bare-metal performance-critical code.
• Proactive, adaptable approach to working on a new processor architecture.

Nice-to-have:

• Understanding of CPU/NPU pipelines, registers, caches, and silicon-level constraints.
• Experience with GPU/acceleration programming (CUDA, OpenCL, Vulkan) and SIMD/SIMT models.
• Linux driver development and tooling (CMake) experience.
• Familiarity with Rust for systems safety and concurrent programming patterns.
• Knowledge of functional programming concepts applied in non-garbage-collected environments.

Education Requirements

Not specified.

About the Company

Company: Quadric

Headquarters: Burlingame, California, United States

Quadric is building the world’s first supercomputer designed for the real-time needs of edge devices. Founded in 2016, the company empowers developers across industries with innovative general-purpose neural processing unit (GPNPU) architecture for neural network workloads. Co-founded by technologists from MIT and Carnegie Mellon, Quadric aims to enable groundbreaking technology development.