Staff/Principal Software Engineer – AI Applications

Axelera AI is seeking an experienced, technically outstanding Staff/Principal Software Engineer to take ownership of a significant area of the Applications stack. This role involves developing customer-facing components of Axelera AI’s Voyager SDK, including low-code model deployment, end-to-end pipeline development, and application integration. Join a dynamic, fast-growing, international organization shaping the future of AI.

Axelera AI is a global industry pioneer, creating the next-generation AI platform to advance humanity. With significant funding and a world-class team, we have launched our Metis™ AI Platform, achieving a 3-5x increase in efficiency and performance. We are looking for talented individuals to join our mission.

This is a Staff/Principal-level role for someone who can identify and execute on opportunities requiring strong technical judgment, push technical boundaries, and create reusable architectures. Operate with significant autonomy and help shape the technical roadmap for the Applications team. Apply now to join our innovative team!

Company Overview

Axelera AI is a deep-tech company creating a game-changing AI-native hardware and software platform. Headquartered in Eindhoven, Netherlands, with R&D offices across Europe, we are building the next-generation AI platform to advance humanity. Our Metis™ AI Platform offers significant increases in efficiency and performance, establishing us as a global industry pioneer.

Quick Details

• Salary Range: Not Applicable
• Job Type: Full-time
• Experience: 5 Year+
• Qualifications: BS/MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or equivalent, with a substantial track record (typically 8+ years) of hands-on experience in the semiconductor and/or AI industry

Key Responsibilities

• Owning the end-to-end technical strategy for a major area of the Voyager SDK’s application layer.
• Setting technical direction for image pre/post processing operators and decoders, creating reusable architectures.
• Driving the integration of industry-standard model frameworks into the SDK.
• Defining company-wide metadata representations for common model types and owning the libraries used to evaluate deployed model accuracy.
• Taking accountability for end-to-end pipeline latency and throughput across supported hardware platforms.
• Representing the Applications team’s technical capabilities to business stakeholders, customers, and the industry.

Requirements

• Deep, hands-on expertise with edge deployment frameworks such as OpenVINO or TensorRT.
• Experience with GPU computing APIs such as OpenCL and Vulkan.
• Strong track record applying model optimisation techniques such as quantization, compression and pruning.
• Expert-level proficiency in AI application development using Python, with extensive experience in ML libraries such as PyTorch and TensorFlow.
• Expert-level proficiency in Python/C++.
• Demonstrated ability to architect, build and deploy end-to-end pipelines with quantized models at scale.
• Experience in training models using transfer learning to leverage pre-trained models for new tasks.
• Experience with MLIR and ONNXRuntime a plus.
• A track record of navigating deep ambiguity and delivering outcomes without clear playbooks.
• Strong communication and influencing skills, with experience navigating high-stakes conversations.
• Experience mentoring and developing other engineers.
• Proficient Linux skills.
• Practical knowledge of agile development using tools such as Jira, Git and GitHub.
• Self-motivated, with the ability to set technical direction and thrive with significant autonomy.

Benefits

• An attractive compensation package, including a pension plan.
• Extensive employee insurances.
• The option to get company shares.
• An open culture that supports creativity and continual innovation.
• Collaborative ownership and freedom with responsibility.
• A warm and inclusive environment that empowers and celebrates every member of our team.