RISC-V AI Software Engineer — Kernels, Runtime & SDK

Overview

Mentium Technologies Inc. is seeking a motivated RISC-V Software Engineer to join our hardware-software co-design team. In this role, you will help develop and optimize the software stack for our custom RISC-V-based vision AI accelerator.

You will work across embedded software, computer architecture, and machine learning to develop high-performance compute libraries, runtime components, and developer-facing SDK tools. A key part of the role will be efficiently mapping AI and signal-processing workloads onto a multicore RISC-V SoC, with particular attention to vector processing, memory usage, data movement, and parallel execution.

You will collaborate closely with RTL design, system architecture, software, and machine learning teams. This role is well suited for an engineer with experience in RISC-V, embedded computing, or accelerator research who is interested in turning advanced architectural concepts into a practical and extensible software platform.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and optimize software kernels for machine learning and signal-processing workloads on a RISC-V-based accelerator
• Build reusable compute libraries, runtime components, and APIs for the Mentium SDK
• Optimize software for vector execution, multicore processing, and the SoC memory hierarchy
• Develop efficient data-movement and workload-scheduling strategies
• Profile workloads and identify compute, memory, and system-level performance bottlenecks
• Integrate optimized software components into AI model deployment and inference workflows
• Develop functional tests, performance benchmarks, examples, and SDK documentation
• Collaborate with hardware engineers to validate architectural features and improve system performance
• Contribute to the continued development of the RISC-V accelerator software architecture and programming model
• Evaluate and adapt relevant open-source libraries, runtimes, and compiler technologies

Required Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field
• 3+ years of combined relevant industry, doctoral research, or applied research experience
• Strong programming skills in Python, C and C++
• Experience with Python for testing, automation, tooling, or application development
• Solid understanding of computer architecture, memory systems, and parallel processing
• Experience with performance optimization, profiling, and low-level debugging
• Familiarity with machine learning or signal-processing operations such as convolution and matrix multiplication
• Ability to read hardware specifications and collaborate effectively across hardware and software teams
• Experience with Git and standard collaborative software-development practices
• Professional proficiency in English

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with the RISC-V instruction set or RISC-V Vector Extension
• Experience with open-source RISC-V platforms such as PULP, or similar multicore and accelerator systems
• Experience with SIMD, vector processors, GPUs, DSPs, or custom accelerator architectures
• Experience with vector intrinsics, assembly programming, or low-level code optimization
• Familiarity with embedded, bare-metal, or real-time software development
• Experience developing numerical, signal-processing, or machine learning libraries
• Understanding of DMA, scratchpad memory, cache hierarchies, and multicore synchronization
• Familiarity with machine learning frameworks or model formats such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or ONNX
• Exposure to compiler and deployment technologies such as LLVM, MLIR, TVM, Deeploy, or related tools
• Experience contributing to open-source software or research software projects
• Experience developing SDKs, runtime libraries, developer tools, or reusable APIs
• Exposure to hardware-software co-design, SoC development, FPGA prototyping, or architectural simulation
• Italian language skills are welcome but not required

Location and Employment

• Location: Italy-based hybrid (preferred regions: Piemonte, Lombardia, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Campania)
• Work arrangement: hybrid
• Employment type: Full-time
• Gross annual salary range — RAL: €40,000–€65,000, depending on experience and technical background

Why Join Mentium?

At Mentium, you will work at the intersection of custom silicon, RISC-V software, embedded systems, and vision AI. You will collaborate directly with the engineers designing the hardware and help create the software environment used to program and deploy workloads on it.

As part of a small and focused company, your contributions will directly influence our products and technical direction. You will have the opportunity to take ownership of meaningful projects and help transform advanced RISC-V and accelerator technologies into a robust, developer-friendly software platform.

This position provides an opportunity to work on both research-oriented technical challenges and production-quality engineering, while gaining experience across processor architecture, optimized kernels, runtime software, AI deployment, and hardware-software co-design.