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Senior Systems Engineer - AI Infrastructure

Design and implement low-level systems software for GPU clusters in a pioneering AI infrastructure company.

Location
On Site, Palo Alto, California
Compensation
$150k–$230k/yr
Level
senior
Type
full time

Posted by employer 7 months ago

First seen on Joblaze 1 week ago

Last verified on the company career page 1 day ago

Requirements

Experience
8+ years

Not disclosed in this posting: work arrangement, visa sponsorship.

Benefits

Catered Lunch Equity/Stock Options Competitive Compensation Great benefits package

Joblaze summary

In this role, the Senior Systems Engineer at Clockwork Systems focuses on designing and implementing low-level systems software for GPU clusters, ensuring high performance and fault tolerance in distributed environments. The position requires strong expertise in C/C++ and a deep understanding of concurrency and distributed system behavior, with experience in building complex systems rather than merely deploying them. This role is ideal for seasoned engineers with over eight years of experience who can navigate ambiguity and mentor others, contributing to a collaborative and innovative team culture.

Joblaze insights

Quick facts

What's the salary range?
Clockwork Systems lists $150,000–$230,000 for this role.
How much experience is required?
At least 8 years of relevant experience for this Senior Systems Engineer - AI Infrastructure role.
What's the tech stack?
Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: C++, CUDA, Infiniband, NCCL, PyTorch, RDMA.
What seniority level is this role?
Clockwork Systems targets senior candidates for this position.
Is this full-time or contract?
Full-time for this Senior Systems Engineer - AI Infrastructure role at Clockwork Systems.

From the original posting

About Clockwork Systems

Clockwork.io – Software Driven Fabrics to increase GPU cluster utilization

Clockwork Systems was founded by Stanford researchers and veteran systems engineers who share a vision for redefining the foundations of distributed computing. As AI workloads grow increasingly complex, traditional infrastructure struggles to meet the demands of performance, reliability, and precise coordination. Clockwork is pioneering a software-driven approach to AI fabrics by delivering cross-stack observability to catch and quickly resolve problems, workload fault tolerance to keep jobs running through failures, and performance acceleration that dynamically routes and paces traffic to avoid congestion.

To learn more, visit www.clockwork.io.

About the Role

We're building infrastructure for fault-tolerant, high-performance distributed GPU training. You'll work at the intersection of GPU systems, high-speed networking, and distributed coordination—designing and implementing systems that run at scale.

This is a systems building role. You'll dig into internals, understand why things break under pressure, and design solutions that handle the messy reality of distributed systems.

What You'll Do

  • Design and implement low-level systems software for GPU clusters
  • Work with internals of frameworks like PyTorch, NCCL, CUDA runtime—not as a user, but modifying and extending them
  • Build components that make large-scale GPU training more reliable and efficient
  • Debug complex distributed/concurrent systems where failures are subtle and non-deterministic
  • Own systems end-to-end: from design through production

What We're Looking For

Required: Systems building experience

You've designed and built complex systems—not just deployed or operated them. Examples:

  • Kernel subsystems, device drivers, or OS-level components
  • Distributed storage, databases, or coordination systems
  • Runtimes, profilers, or performance tooling
  • Network stacks, protocols, or high-performance I/O systems
  • Large-scale infrastructure at the systems layer

Core technical skills:

  • Strong C/C++ in systems contexts (not just application code)
  • Deep understanding of concurrency, memory models, and failure modes
  • Experience reasoning about distributed system behavior: consistency, ordering, partial failures
  • Comfortable reading and modifying large, unfamiliar codebases

Nice to have:

  • GPU programming (CUDA) or GPU systems experience
  • High-performance networking (RDMA, InfiniBand)
  • ML framework or runtime internals
  • Cluster scheduling or orchestration systems

We believe strong systems engineers pick up domain-specific tools quickly. We value your ability to reason about complex systems over checkbox familiarity with our specific stack.

Senior Expectations

  • Lead design of significant system components
  • Navigate ambiguity and define technical direction
  • Mentor engineers and raise team capabilities
  • 8+ years building systems software

Enjoy

  • Challenging projects.
  • A friendly and inclusive workplace culture.
  • Competitive compensation.
  • A great benefits package.
  • Catered lunch.

Compensation for this position will vary based on the skills and experience you bring, as well as internal equity considerations. For candidates hired at the posted level, the expected base salary range is $150,000 - $230,000. In addition to cash compensation, this role is eligible to participate in the company’s equity program, which may include stock options granted in accordance with the company’s equity plan and subject to approval and applicable vesting schedules.

Clockwork Systems is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building world-class teams by welcoming bright, passionate individuals from all backgrounds. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status. We believe diversity drives innovation, and we grow stronger together.

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