Software Engineer, Metal Runtime (API & Abstractions)

As a Software Engineer on the Metal Runtime team at Tenstorrent, you’ll work on the low-level software that powers our AI accelerators. You’ll design fast, efficient runtime systems that run close to the hardware, and define the host and device APIs that expose these capabilities to the rest of the software stack. We believe APIs are a core part of systems design: they encode hardware semantics, performance tradeoffs, and concurrency models, and they live longer than any single implementation.

If you enjoy pushing performance, working close to the metal, and designing abstractions that make complex systems usable without sacrificing control, this is your kind of role.

This role is hybrid, based out of Santa Clara, CA; Austin, TX; Toronto, ON.

We welcome candidates at various experience levels for this role. During the interview process, candidates will be assessed for the appropriate level, and offers will align with that level, which may differ from the one in this posting.

 

Who You Are

• Strong C/C++ developer with a passion for low-level systems programming and software that runs close to hardware.
• Comfortable working with concurrency, processors, memory movement, and performance-critical systems.
• Experienced in designing clean, maintainable APIs and abstractions with a focus on developer experience.
• Thoughtful about balancing performance, usability, and long-term maintainability in systems design.
• Collaborative, curious, and excited to solve challenging problems at the intersection of hardware and software.

 

What We Need

• Design and evolve high-performance host and device APIs for Tenstorrent's Metal Runtime.
• Develop intuitive abstractions that expose low-level hardware capabilities while maintaining performance and control.
• Partner closely with runtime, kernel, compiler, and software teams to build scalable, production-ready interfaces.
• Contribute to runtime implementation, debugging, performance optimization, and API integration across the software stack.
• Drive API quality through thoughtful design, usability improvements, and long-term maintainability.

 

What You Will Learn

• How modern AI runtimes are designed to maximize hardware performance and scalability.
• How to build APIs and abstractions that balance performance, flexibility, and ease of use.
• How software interfaces evolve alongside next-generation AI hardware architectures.
• Best practices for designing maintainable, high-performance systems software.
• How to collaborate across hardware, compiler, runtime, and software teams to deliver world-class AI infrastructure.

 

Compensation for all engineers at Tenstorrent ranges from $100k - $500k including base and variable compensation targets. Experience, skills, education, background and location all impact the actual offer made.

Tenstorrent offers a highly competitive compensation package and benefits, and we are an equal opportunity employer.