About Etched

Etched is building the world’s first AI inference system purpose-built for transformers - delivering over 10x higher performance and dramatically lower cost and latency than a B200. With Etched ASICs, you can build products that would be impossible with GPUs, like real-time video generation models and extremely deep & parallel chain-of-thought reasoning agents. Backed by hundreds of millions from top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Etched is redefining the infrastructure layer for the fastest growing industry in history.

Job Summary:

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Senior Supercomputing Software Engineer to join our team, responsible for the foundational software that powers our server infrastructure. This role focuses on the development, integration, and debugging of critical system software components, including BIOS, BMC firmware, boot processes (including NetBoot), root of trust implementations, advanced system logging, and kernel-mode drivers. You will play a pivotal role in ensuring the reliability, security, and performance of our server platforms, and contribute to the integration of data center orchestration technologies at the node level.

Key Team Responsibilities

Integrate and maintain BIOS and BMC firmware, ensuring robust and efficient server boot processes.
Analyze DRAM timings, PCIe configurations, power state transitions etc. to ensure high performance and maximal reliability.
Design and implement advanced system logging and diagnostic capabilities to facilitate efficient troubleshooting and performance analysis.
Integrate and optimize node-level data center orchestration technologies, such as Kubernetes and Docker, into the system software stack.
Develop and execute comprehensive test plans to validate system software functionality, stability, and performance.
Collaborate with hardware and software teams to diagnose and resolve complex system-level issues.
Validating security features, including root of trust mechanisms, to protect system integrity and data security.
Review code developed by other engineers and provide feedback to ensure best practices (e.g., style guidelines, checking code in, accuracy, testability, and efficiency).
Lead junior developers to unblock the complex tasks.

Representative Projects

Design and implement advanced system logging and monitoring solutions.
Integrate node-level container orchestration capabilities into the system software.
Analyze and resolve complex system-level issues related to boot failures, hardware errors, and performance degradation.
Analyze and optimize system level logging for large scale server deployments.
Implement and validate secure boot processes, including root of trust verification.
Optimize BIOS and BMC firmware for high system performance, improved boot times and system stability.

You may be a good fit if you have

10+ years experience with C/C++ or Python.
8+ years experience with BMC (AMI or OpenBMC) firmware development.
5+ years experience with version control systems (e.g., Git).
Ability to analyze complex technical problems and provide effective solutions.
Experience with server boot processes.
Experience with CI/CD pipelines.
Experience with advanced system logging and diagnostic tools.
Experience with reading and interpreting hardware logs.
Strong understanding of operating systems (Linux preferred) and server hardware architectures.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
Knowledge of root-of-trust and security principles.

Strong candidates may also have experience with (Nice-to-have qualifications)

3+ years experience with leading role

Experience with BIOS firmware architectures.

Experience with OpenBMC development
Experience with data center orchestration technologies (Kubernetes, Docker).
Experience with tracing tools like perf, eBPF, ftrace, etc.
Experience with performance testing and benchmarking tools (gProf, vTune, Wireshark, etc.).
Experience with Rust.
Experience with kernel-mode driver development and debugging.

Benefits

Competitive compensation packages, including generous equity packages
Comprehensive insurance coverage and other top-of-market benefits

How we’re different

Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We think most of the progress in the AI field has come from using more FLOPs to train and run models, and the best way to get more FLOPs is to build model-specific hardware. Larger and larger training runs encourage companies to consolidate around fewer model architectures, which creates a market for single-model ASICs.

We are a fully in-person team in San Jose and Taipei, and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both as needed.

Senior Supercomputing Software Engineer (Taiwan)