NKI Kernel Optimization Specialist

About The Job Mercor connects elite creative and technical talent with leading AI research labs. Headquartered in San Francisco, our investors include Benchmark , General Catalyst , Peter Thiel , Adam D'Angelo , Larry Summers , and Jack Dorsey .

Position: Trainium (NKI) Kernel Expert

Type: Contract Compensation: $70–$90/hour Location: Remote Role Responsibilities

• Evaluate the quality, correctness, and hardware-appropriateness of Neuron Kernel Interface (NKI) development tasks for training and evaluating AI models.
• Assess CUDA→NKI migration fidelity and Trainium-specific performance-optimization quality.
• Review cross-platform numerical-correctness standards and provide clear, rubric-based feedback.
• Collaborate with AI research teams to ensure consistency and coverage across datasets.
• Work independently and asynchronously to improve AI model performance.

Qualifications Must-Have

• 2+ years of experience developing or optimizing kernels using NKI targeting AWS Trainium/Inferentia2 hardware.
• Strong understanding of NKI-specific development patterns and memory-hierarchy management.
• Experience assessing CUDA→NKI migration quality.
• Familiarity with Trainium-specific performance profiling.
• Experience defining or evaluating cross-platform numerical-correctness standards.

Preferred

• Experience with AWS Neuron SDK, Neuron Compiler internals, or contributions to NKI kernel libraries.
• Prior CUDA or Triton kernel development.
• Familiarity with Trainium hardware specifications.
• Experience benchmarking ML training workloads on Trn1/Trn2 instances.

Application Process (Takes 20–30 mins to complete)

• Upload resume
• AI interview based on your resume
• Submit form

Resources & Support

• For details about the interview process and platform information, please check: https://talent.docs.mercor.com/welcome
• For any help or support, reach out to: [email protected]

PS: Our team reviews applications daily. Please complete your AI interview and application steps to be considered for this opportunity. ,