# Kernel Engineer (Compute / Accelerator) at Density

- Company: Density
- What the company does: Density shows you how people use your space and helps you get more out of every square foot. Backed by Kleiner Perkins and South Park Commons.
- Company website: https://www.density.io/
- Type: Startups (AI role)
- Level: Mid level
- Location: Mountain View, CA
- Work setup: On-site
- Posted: 2026-06-02
- Apply by: 2026-10-08
- Apply: https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/densityai/jobs/4264627009
- Page: https://www.1752.vc/careers/jobs/density-kernel-engineer-compute-accelerator/

## About the role

You will write, evaluate, and profile specialized compute kernels that run on a custom AI accelerator. This is the critical interface between high-level ML workloads and silicon — your code directly determines how effectively the hardware performs. You'll work closely with the architecture and compiler teams to define the kernel programming model, implement core tensor operations, and drive the performance profiling workflow that validates silicon design decisions.

## What they're looking for

- C/C++ — production-grade systems code, not scripted glue. You'll write performance-critical kernels
- CUDA or equivalent accelerator programming — deep experience writing GPU kernels, understanding warp/wavefront execution, memory coalescing, shared memory optimization. The mental model transfers directly
- Computer architecture — you need to reason about pipelines, memory hierarchies, data movement costs, and how software maps to hardware
- Performance profiling and optimization — you live in profilers. Identifying bottlenecks, measuring throughput, and iterating until kernels meet targets is the core loop
- Tensor operations — practical understanding of GEMM, convolution, attention, reduction, and scatter/gather as they map to hardware
- Python — for scripting, DSL integration, and profiling automation

Tags: Software