SambaNova is a leader in next-generation AI infrastructure, delivering a full-stack inference platform for customers worldwide. At the core of SambaNova's technology is the RDU (Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit) — a chip built on a dataflow architecture rather than the traditional GPU model. Its decode performance is especially strong for agentic workloads like multi-turn agents, code generation, and long-running applications. RDUs are packaged into SambaRack, rack-scale hardware that lets customers deploy state-of-the-art models with better performance, greater energy efficiency, and faster time to value.
Join the company that's building the future of AI computing. SambaNova is disrupting the AI and high-performance computing space with an integrated hardware and software platform.
Our SambaStack inference serving platform is pushing the boundaries of inference serving for generative AI and large language models. We are a team of passionate innovators tackling some of the world's most challenging computational problems.
About the RoleSambaNova is hiring a Software Architect for the SambaStack platform.
We help enterprises and service providers host their own AI inference platforms, powered by our state-of-the-art RDU (Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit) hardware architecture. Our cloud-agnostic, enterprise-grade inference serving platform enables seamless deployment, management, and scaling of foundation model workloads at production scale.
As a Software Architect on the SambaStack team, you will define the technical direction of the platform, shaping how it evolves to meet the demands of the world's most demanding enterprise AI workloads. You will own the cross-cutting architectural decisions that span teams and shape the platform's long-term trajectory.
This is a high-impact, high-visibility role at the intersection of:
- AI infrastructure
- Enterprise software
- Systems architecture and design
- Developer experience
- Own the end-to-end technical architecture of the SambaStack inference platform, ensuring it meets enterprise-grade standards for scalability, reliability, and performance.
- Define and drive architectural strategy across engineering teams, aligning long-term platform direction with product and business objectives.
- Lead design reviews for major new capabilities and cross-cutting system changes, providing authoritative technical guidance and raising the quality bar across the SambaStack engineering organization.
- Proactively identify and resolve systemic risks, including performance bottlenecks, reliability gaps, and scaling constraints, before they impact customers.
- Establish and evolve architectural standards, patterns, and best practices across the SambaStack engineering organization.
- Partner with ML Engineers, Product Managers, QA, and DevOps to translate complex, ambiguous requirements into sound architectural decisions.
- Serve as a technical thought leader and mentor, growing the architectural thinking and design skills of Software Engineers across the team.
- Evaluate emerging technologies and industry trends to inform the platform's technical roadmap.
- Architect new systems, components, and capabilities to solve new and interesting problems in the AI inference space.
- 12+ years of software engineering experience, including significant time in a role with organization-wide technical influence.
- Proven track record of owning large-scale distributed systems architectures end-to-end from design to production.
- Expertise building backend systems in Python, Go, or Rust.
- Expert-level understanding of Kubernetes, including Operators, Helm Charts, and cluster-scale resource management.
- Strong command of distributed systems principles: consistency, fault tolerance, observability, and performance at scale.
- Demonstrated experience setting technical direction across multiple teams and driving cross-functional alignment.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills: Able to clearly articulate complex architectural decisions to both engineering and non-technical audiences.
- Track record of mentoring more junior engineers and elevating team-wide engineering quality.
- Deep familiarity with AI inference serving, orchestration, and the infrastructure challenges of LLM workloads at production scale.
- Experience designing systems for custom or novel hardware accelerators (e.g., dataflow architectures, GPUs, TPUs).
- Background in ML application optimization and productionization.
- Experience building cloud-native platforms for enterprise customers with stringent SLA and compliance requirements.
- Familiarity with AI coding assistants and the developer tooling ecosystem.
- Experience at a high-growth AI infrastructure company.
Base Salary Range:
Submission Guidelines
Please note that in order to be considered an applicant for any position at SambaNova Systems, you must submit an application form for each position for which you believe you are qualified.
EEO Policy
SambaNova Systems is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard basis of age (40 and over), color, disability, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, national origin/ancestry, race, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding), sexual orientation, and any other applicable status protected by federal, state, or local laws.
Benefits Summary for US-Based, Full-Time Employment Positions
SambaNova offers a competitive total rewards package, including the base salary, plus equity and benefits. We cover 95% premium coverage for employee medical insurance, and 77% premium coverage for dependents and offer a Health Savings Account (HSA) with employer contribution. We also offer Dental, Vision, Short/Long term Disability, Basic Life, Voluntary Life, and AD&D insurance plans in addition to Flexible Spending Account (FSA) options like Health Care, Limited Purpose, and Dependent Care. Our library of well-being benefits available to you and your dependents includes a full subscription to Headspace, Gympass+ membership with access to physical gyms, One Medical membership, counseling services with an Employee Assistance Program, and much more.
SambaNova Systems Palo Alto, California, USA Office
Our Palo Alto office is in a tech complex known for incubating research facilities and borders the Bay Trail along the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge. Only a 5-minute walk, our employees often fly out of PAO for lunch with colleagues or enjoy happy hour at the nearby Palo Alto Country Club.
Similar Jobs
What you need to know about the San Francisco Tech Scene
Key Facts About San Francisco Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 365,500; 13.9% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: Google, Apple, Salesforce, Meta
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, fintech, consumer technology, software
- Funding Landscape: $50.5 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins
- Research Centers and Universities: Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; University of San Francisco; Santa Clara University; Ames Research Center; Center for AI Safety; California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
