Inference performance depends on how efficiently models use the underlying hardware. Techniques across kernels, compilers, runtimes, and serving systems can dramatically improve latency and throughput, but these optimizations are difficult, hardware-specific, and slow to reproduce across new accelerators. And none of it counts until it is running in a customer's production traffic.
At Wafer, we are building AI systems that automatically optimize inference workloads across silicon. The goal is fungible token capacity. Any accelerator optimized toward serving inference most efficiently.
Wafer is well funded and serves trillions of tokens a month for mission critical workloads. We serve the highest performance inference to fast-growing AI startups.
Members of Technical Staff build the systems that make that possible and own the customers running on them. There is no separate solutions team, and no layer between you and the workload.
Develop and optimize high-performance computing kernels, and work across inference engine internals and serving infrastructure
Develop AI agents to do autonomous inference engineering
Design, deploy, and operate heterogeneous clusters across vendors
Own customer accounts end to end. Sales gets the first meeting. From there you decide what to prove, you build it, you keep it running in production, and you carry the relationship
Win the technical evaluation. Prove Wafer on the customer's own workload rather than a synthetic benchmark, and be the person who can explain the result to their engineers
Own production for your accounts. When latency moves or error rates climb, you find it, you fix it or route it, and you are who the customer hears from
Inform product roadmap. You sit closer than anyone to how Wafer behaves under real load, and the engineering team builds against what you report
You are an exceptional engineer. You have shipped and operated production systems, and you can still open a profiler, read a trace, and find the problem yourself. Inference experience helps, but it matters more that you can be handed an unfamiliar system and own it inside a week.
You have owned a customer relationship. You can name an account that was yours, say what was going wrong, and describe what you personally did about it.
You are credible in a room full of engineers. You can take a skeptical ML team through a benchmark, defend the methodology, and concede the point when they are right.
You work without a spec. The problem arrives half-defined from a customer who does not yet know what they need, and you come back with a scoped answer rather than a list of questions.
We score every candidate on seven values:
Infinitely Resourceful
Exceptionalism
Unreasonable Standards
Company Over Self
High EQ
Learns Quickly
First Principles Thinker
$250K + generous equity.
Fully covered medical, dental, and vision insurance.
Daily lunch and dinner, unlimited PTO, and parental leave.
$1K/month housing stipend (post-tax) if you live within walking distance (0.5 miles) from the office.
Covered Uber/Waymo from/to office.
Relocation allowance and benefits.
Visa sponsorship available.
On-site in San Francisco, five days a week. Small team with massive surface area and ownership. You operate with complete autonomy of how to solve problems. We don't see engineers as code writers, but as problem solvers. You will work across the stack to build a company scaling extremely quickly.
This is not a role that lives in meetings. Nearly all of your time is engineering. What makes it different is who that engineering is for: you are responsible for a named set of customers, their workloads run on what you build, and you are the person they hear from when it matters.
","descriptionPlain":"MEMBER OF TECHNICAL STAFF\n\nInference performance depends on how efficiently models use the underlying hardware. Techniques across kernels, compilers, runtimes, and serving systems can dramatically improve latency and throughput, but these optimizations are difficult, hardware-specific, and slow to reproduce across new accelerators. And none of it counts until it is running in a customer's production traffic.\n\nAt Wafer, we are building AI systems that automatically optimize inference workloads across silicon. The goal is fungible token capacity. Any accelerator optimized toward serving inference most efficiently.\n\nWafer is well funded and serves trillions of tokens a month for mission critical workloads. We serve the highest performance inference to fast-growing AI startups.\n\nMembers of Technical Staff build the systems that make that possible and own the customers running on them. There is no separate solutions team, and no layer between you and the workload.\n\n \n\n\nWHAT YOU'LL DO\n\n - Develop and optimize high-performance computing kernels, and work across inference engine internals and serving infrastructure\n\n - Develop AI agents to do autonomous inference engineering\n\n - Design, deploy, and operate heterogeneous clusters across vendors\n\n - Own customer accounts end to end. Sales gets the first meeting. From there you decide what to prove, you build it, you keep it running in production, and you carry the relationship\n\n - Win the technical evaluation. Prove Wafer on the customer's own workload rather than a synthetic benchmark, and be the person who can explain the result to their engineers\n\n - Own production for your accounts. When latency moves or error rates climb, you find it, you fix it or route it, and you are who the customer hears from\n\n - Inform product roadmap. You sit closer than anyone to how Wafer behaves under real load, and the engineering team builds against what you report\n\n \n\n\nWHAT WE LOOK FOR\n\n - You are an exceptional engineer. You have shipped and operated production systems, and you can still open a profiler, read a trace, and find the problem yourself. Inference experience helps, but it matters more that you can be handed an unfamiliar system and own it inside a week.\n\n - You have owned a customer relationship. You can name an account that was yours, say what was going wrong, and describe what you personally did about it.\n\n - You are credible in a room full of engineers. You can take a skeptical ML team through a benchmark, defend the methodology, and concede the point when they are right.\n\n - You work without a spec. The problem arrives half-defined from a customer who does not yet know what they need, and you come back with a scoped answer rather than a list of questions.\n\n \n\n\nHOW WE EVALUATE\n\nWe score every candidate on seven values:\n\n 1. Infinitely Resourceful\n\n 2. Exceptionalism\n\n 3. Unreasonable Standards\n\n 4. Company Over Self\n\n 5. High EQ\n\n 6. Learns Quickly\n\n 7. First Principles Thinker\n\n \n\n\nCOMPENSATION AND BENEFITS\n\n - $250K + generous equity.\n\n - Fully covered medical, dental, and vision insurance.\n\n - Daily lunch and dinner, unlimited PTO, and parental leave.\n\n - $1K/month housing stipend (post-tax) if you live within walking distance (0.5 miles) from the office.\n\n - Covered Uber/Waymo from/to office.\n\n - Relocation allowance and benefits.\n\n - Visa sponsorship available.\n\n \n\n\nHOW WE WORK\n\nOn-site in San Francisco, five days a week. Small team with massive surface area and ownership. You operate with complete autonomy of how to solve problems. We don't see engineers as code writers, but as problem solvers. You will work across the stack to build a company scaling extremely quickly.\n\nThis is not a role that lives in meetings. Nearly all of your time is engineering. What makes it different is who that engineering is for: you are responsible for a named set of customers, their workloads run on what you build, and you are the person they hear from when it matters.","compensation":{"compensationTierSummary":"$250K • Offers generous equity. Fully covered medical, dental and vision. Daily lunch and dinner. Unlimited PTO and parental leave. $1K/month housing stipend if you live within half a mile of the office. Visa sponsorship available.","scrapeableCompensationSalarySummary":"$250K","compensationTiers":[{"id":"c9f16025-3c04-40d5-9211-76d78c6c6268","tierSummary":"$250K • Offers generous equity. Fully covered medical, dental and vision. Daily lunch and dinner. Unlimited PTO and parental leave. $1K/month housing stipend if you live within half a mile of the office. Visa sponsorship available.","title":null,"additionalInformation":"Offers generous equity. Fully covered medical, dental and vision. Daily lunch and dinner. Unlimited PTO and parental leave. $1K/month housing stipend if you live within half a mile of the office. Visa sponsorship available.","components":[{"id":"851af787-8bdf-4fd4-91a1-5ffd5812f0ba","summary":"$250K","compensationType":"Salary","interval":"1 YEAR","currencyCode":"USD","minValue":250000,"maxValue":250000}]}],"summaryComponents":[{"compensationType":"Salary","interval":"1 YEAR","currencyCode":"USD","minValue":250000,"maxValue":250000}]}},{"id":"3e96d3bb-d2af-449a-9c64-023665a1ad6a","title":"Member of Staff","department":"Operations","team":"Operations","employmentType":"FullTime","location":"San Francisco","shouldDisplayCompensationOnJobPostings":true,"secondaryLocations":[],"publishedAt":"2026-10-21T00:19:15.843+00:00","isListed":true,"isRemote":false,"workplaceType":"OnSite","address":{"postalAddress":{"addressRegion":"California","addressCountry":"United States","addressLocality":"San Francisco"}},"jobUrl":"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/wafer/3e96d3bb-d2af-449a-9c64-023665a1ad6a","applyUrl":"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/wafer/3e96d3bb-d2af-449a-9c64-023665a1ad6a/application","descriptionHtml":"At Wafer, we are building AI systems that automatically optimize inference workloads across silicon. Turning better performance into a better business takes more than faster software. We need the right compute, on the right terms, serving the right demand.
We're looking for someone who understands compute deeply and can connect the technical details to the economics. You should be able to go from GPU architecture to a supplier contract to a financial model, and explain what we should do.
Work with engineering and finance to understand which models and hardware configurations make money, and what changes that.
Build models connecting inference performance, utilization, pricing, compute costs and cash requirements.
Evaluate GPU supply and supplier proposals. Compare price, availability, contract length, deposits, reliability and flexibility.
Help source and negotiate capacity, then track whether delivery and performance match what we agreed.
Turn changing demand and hardware economics into concrete capacity decisions.
Investigate discrepancies across usage, invoices and contracts, and build systems that keep those numbers reliable.
You understand compute beyond the spec sheet. You can explain how GPU architecture, memory, networking and software affect the cost of serving a real workload.
You are exceptional with numbers. You can build a clear financial model, challenge its assumptions and explain the difference between profit and cash.
You have roughly 1–5 years of relevant experience. A background in compute infrastructure, semiconductors, finance or investing is valuable. What matters most is evidence that you can do this work exceptionally well.
You are credible with engineers and commercially sharp with suppliers. You ask precise questions and follow the details through to a decision.
You work without a spec. You can take a half-defined problem, find the information that matters and come back with a concrete answer.
We score every candidate on seven values:
Infinitely Resourceful
Exceptionalism
Unreasonable Standards
Company Over Self
High EQ
Learns Quickly
First Principles Thinker
Fully covered medical, dental, and vision insurance.
Daily lunch and dinner, unlimited PTO, and parental leave.
$1K/month housing stipend (post-tax) if you live within walking distance (0.5 miles) from the office.
Relocation allowance and benefits.
Covered Uber/Waymo from/to office.
Visa sponsorship available.
On-site in San Francisco, five days a week. Small team with massive surface area and ownership. You operate with complete autonomy of how to solve problems.
You will work directly with engineering, finance and suppliers. Your work should end in better decisions about the compute we run, what it costs and how we scale.
Offers Equity • Fully covered medical, dental and vision. Daily lunch and dinner. Unlimited PTO and parental leave. $1K/month housing stipend if you live within half a mile of the office. Visa sponsorship available.
","descriptionPlain":"MEMBER OF STAFF\n\nAt Wafer, we are building AI systems that automatically optimize inference workloads across silicon. Turning better performance into a better business takes more than faster software. We need the right compute, on the right terms, serving the right demand.\n\nWe're looking for someone who understands compute deeply and can connect the technical details to the economics. You should be able to go from GPU architecture to a supplier contract to a financial model, and explain what we should do.\n\n\n\n\nWHAT YOU'LL DO\n\n - Work with engineering and finance to understand which models and hardware configurations make money, and what changes that.\n\n - Build models connecting inference performance, utilization, pricing, compute costs and cash requirements.\n\n - Evaluate GPU supply and supplier proposals. Compare price, availability, contract length, deposits, reliability and flexibility.\n\n - Help source and negotiate capacity, then track whether delivery and performance match what we agreed.\n\n - Turn changing demand and hardware economics into concrete capacity decisions.\n\n - Investigate discrepancies across usage, invoices and contracts, and build systems that keep those numbers reliable.\n\n\nWHAT WE LOOK FOR\n\n - You understand compute beyond the spec sheet. You can explain how GPU architecture, memory, networking and software affect the cost of serving a real workload.\n\n - You are exceptional with numbers. You can build a clear financial model, challenge its assumptions and explain the difference between profit and cash.\n\n - You have roughly 1–5 years of relevant experience. A background in compute infrastructure, semiconductors, finance or investing is valuable. What matters most is evidence that you can do this work exceptionally well.\n\n - You are credible with engineers and commercially sharp with suppliers. You ask precise questions and follow the details through to a decision.\n\n - You work without a spec. You can take a half-defined problem, find the information that matters and come back with a concrete answer.\n\n\nHOW WE EVALUATE\n\nWe score every candidate on seven values:\n\n 1. Infinitely Resourceful\n\n 2. Exceptionalism\n\n 3. Unreasonable Standards\n\n 4. Company Over Self\n\n 5. High EQ\n\n 6. Learns Quickly\n\n 7. First Principles Thinker\n\n\nBENEFITS\n\n - Fully covered medical, dental, and vision insurance.\n\n - Daily lunch and dinner, unlimited PTO, and parental leave.\n\n - $1K/month housing stipend (post-tax) if you live within walking distance (0.5 miles) from the office.\n\n - Relocation allowance and benefits.\n\n - Covered Uber/Waymo from/to office.\n\n - Visa sponsorship available.\n\n\nHOW WE WORK\n\nOn-site in San Francisco, five days a week. Small team with massive surface area and ownership. You operate with complete autonomy of how to solve problems.\n\nYou will work directly with engineering, finance and suppliers. Your work should end in better decisions about the compute we run, what it costs and how we scale.\n\nOffers Equity • Fully covered medical, dental and vision. Daily lunch and dinner. Unlimited PTO and parental leave. $1K/month housing stipend if you live within half a mile of the office. Visa sponsorship available.","compensation":{"compensationTierSummary":null,"scrapeableCompensationSalarySummary":null,"compensationTiers":[],"summaryComponents":[]}},{"id":"d0461b71-68f8-4b3b-b5f9-22882a039fde","title":"Head of Talent","department":"Operations","team":"Operations","employmentType":"FullTime","location":"San Francisco","shouldDisplayCompensationOnJobPostings":true,"secondaryLocations":[],"publishedAt":"2026-10-21T00:19:30.594+00:00","isListed":true,"isRemote":false,"workplaceType":"OnSite","address":{"postalAddress":{"addressRegion":"California","addressCountry":"United States","addressLocality":"San Francisco"}},"jobUrl":"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/wafer/d0461b71-68f8-4b3b-b5f9-22882a039fde","applyUrl":"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/wafer/d0461b71-68f8-4b3b-b5f9-22882a039fde/application","descriptionHtml":"At Wafer, we are building AI systems that automatically optimize inference workloads across silicon. The quality of our team determines how fast we can build.
We're looking for a Head of Talent to find and close exceptional people, and build the recruiting function that lets Wafer scale without lowering the bar. You'll work directly with the founders, Chief of Staff and hiring managers, and personally own our most important searches.
Find and recruit exceptional engineers and operators through direct sourcing, referrals and relationships.
Own searches from the first conversation through an accepted offer. You know the candidates, what matters to them and what it will take to close them.
Work with hiring managers to define what great looks like, design useful interviews and make decisions quickly.
Help candidates understand Wafer's technical work, ambition and the impact they can have here.
Keep the recruiting process fast and organized: clear ownership, timely feedback, reliable scheduling and accurate data in Ashby.
Manage recruiting partners, understand which channels produce strong hires and spend accordingly.
Build the talent team and recruiting systems as the company grows.
You have several years of experience in talent or recruiting, preferably at a high-growth startup. You've seen what breaks as hiring accelerates and have built the systems to keep up.
You have personally sourced and closed exceptional technical hires. You can explain how you found them, earned their trust and helped them make the decision.
You understand technical hiring. Experience recruiting for infrastructure, systems, AI or similarly demanding engineering roles is especially valuable.
You have strong judgment and high standards. You can help a hiring manager distinguish a great candidate from someone who interviews well.
You build trust with candidates and move quickly without losing the details. You are willing to do the sourcing, follow-ups and coordination yourself.
You work without a spec. You can turn an ambitious hiring goal into a clear plan and execute it.
We score every candidate on seven values:
Infinitely Resourceful
Exceptionalism
Unreasonable Standards
Company Over Self
High EQ
Learns Quickly
First Principles Thinker
Fully covered medical, dental, and vision insurance.
Daily lunch and dinner, unlimited PTO, and parental leave.
$1K/month housing stipend (post-tax) if you live within walking distance (0.5 miles) from the office.
Relocation allowance and benefits.
Covered Uber/Waymo from/to office.
Visa sponsorship available.
On-site in San Francisco, five days a week. Small team with massive surface area and ownership. You operate with complete autonomy of how to solve problems.
You will build the talent function while doing the work yourself. Your success is measured by the exceptional people who join Wafer and what they help us build.
Offers Equity • Fully covered medical, dental and vision. Daily lunch and dinner. Unlimited PTO and parental leave. $1K/month housing stipend if you live within half a mile of the office. Visa sponsorship available.
","descriptionPlain":"HEAD OF TALENT\n\nAt Wafer, we are building AI systems that automatically optimize inference workloads across silicon. The quality of our team determines how fast we can build.\n\nWe're looking for a Head of Talent to find and close exceptional people, and build the recruiting function that lets Wafer scale without lowering the bar. You'll work directly with the founders, Chief of Staff and hiring managers, and personally own our most important searches.\n\n\n\n\nWHAT YOU'LL DO\n\n - Find and recruit exceptional engineers and operators through direct sourcing, referrals and relationships.\n\n - Own searches from the first conversation through an accepted offer. You know the candidates, what matters to them and what it will take to close them.\n\n - Work with hiring managers to define what great looks like, design useful interviews and make decisions quickly.\n\n - Help candidates understand Wafer's technical work, ambition and the impact they can have here.\n\n - Keep the recruiting process fast and organized: clear ownership, timely feedback, reliable scheduling and accurate data in Ashby.\n\n - Manage recruiting partners, understand which channels produce strong hires and spend accordingly.\n\n - Build the talent team and recruiting systems as the company grows.\n\n\nWHAT WE LOOK FOR\n\n - You have several years of experience in talent or recruiting, preferably at a high-growth startup. You've seen what breaks as hiring accelerates and have built the systems to keep up.\n\n - You have personally sourced and closed exceptional technical hires. You can explain how you found them, earned their trust and helped them make the decision.\n\n - You understand technical hiring. Experience recruiting for infrastructure, systems, AI or similarly demanding engineering roles is especially valuable.\n\n - You have strong judgment and high standards. You can help a hiring manager distinguish a great candidate from someone who interviews well.\n\n - You build trust with candidates and move quickly without losing the details. You are willing to do the sourcing, follow-ups and coordination yourself.\n\n - You work without a spec. You can turn an ambitious hiring goal into a clear plan and execute it.\n\n\nHOW WE EVALUATE\n\nWe score every candidate on seven values:\n\n 1. Infinitely Resourceful\n\n 2. Exceptionalism\n\n 3. Unreasonable Standards\n\n 4. Company Over Self\n\n 5. High EQ\n\n 6. Learns Quickly\n\n 7. First Principles Thinker\n\n\nBENEFITS\n\n - Fully covered medical, dental, and vision insurance.\n\n - Daily lunch and dinner, unlimited PTO, and parental leave.\n\n - $1K/month housing stipend (post-tax) if you live within walking distance (0.5 miles) from the office.\n\n - Relocation allowance and benefits.\n\n - Covered Uber/Waymo from/to office.\n\n - Visa sponsorship available.\n\n\nHOW WE WORK\n\nOn-site in San Francisco, five days a week. Small team with massive surface area and ownership. You operate with complete autonomy of how to solve problems.\n\nYou will build the talent function while doing the work yourself. Your success is measured by the exceptional people who join Wafer and what they help us build.\n\nOffers Equity • Fully covered medical, dental and vision. Daily lunch and dinner. Unlimited PTO and parental leave. $1K/month housing stipend if you live within half a mile of the office. Visa sponsorship available.","compensation":{"compensationTierSummary":null,"scrapeableCompensationSalarySummary":null,"compensationTiers":[],"summaryComponents":[]}},{"id":"002dfe2a-2982-40c2-a86c-8234bc91e84e","title":"Security & Compliance Manager","department":"Operations","team":"Operations","employmentType":"FullTime","location":"San Francisco","shouldDisplayCompensationOnJobPostings":false,"secondaryLocations":[],"publishedAt":"2026-11-04T02:54:42.732+00:00","isListed":true,"isRemote":false,"workplaceType":"OnSite","address":{"postalAddress":{"addressRegion":"California","addressCountry":"United States","addressLocality":"San Francisco"}},"jobUrl":"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/wafer/002dfe2a-2982-40c2-a86c-8234bc91e84e","applyUrl":"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/wafer/002dfe2a-2982-40c2-a86c-8234bc91e84e/application","descriptionHtml":"Wafer is the fastest inference cloud for open source models.
We're looking for someone to own our security and compliance program. You'll work closely with engineering, operations and legal to run audits, answer customer security questions and turn requirements into practical, reliable processes. You should be comfortable building the function while doing the work yourself.
Own the SOC 2 audit process, including evidence collection, auditor coordination, control reviews and remediation.
Lead customer security questionnaires and reviews, providing clear answers supported by current evidence.
Keep our trust center, policies, security documentation and approved responses accurate.
Partner with engineers to implement and document controls for access, devices, logging, incident response and business continuity.
Coordinate privacy and contractual requirements with legal and engineering, including data retention, deletion and subprocessors.
Manage vendor security assessments and track risks, owners and outstanding actions.
Build efficient processes that help the company move quickly while meeting its commitments.
Experience personally owning SOC 2 Type II audits and ongoing compliance work.
Strong technical understanding of cloud infrastructure, identity and access, data handling and security controls.
Experience handling enterprise security reviews and working with engineering and legal teams.
A record of taking ownership, resolving difficult problems and following through.
Excellent writing and judgment. You can explain complex systems clearly and distinguish what is implemented from what is planned.
You'll have substantial ownership and work directly with the people building Wafer.
Full-time, on-site in San Francisco.
","descriptionPlain":"Wafer is the fastest inference cloud for open source models.\n\nWe're looking for someone to own our security and compliance program. You'll work closely with engineering, operations and legal to run audits, answer customer security questions and turn requirements into practical, reliable processes. You should be comfortable building the function while doing the work yourself.\n\n\nWHAT YOU'LL DO\n\n - Own the SOC 2 audit process, including evidence collection, auditor coordination, control reviews and remediation.\n\n - Lead customer security questionnaires and reviews, providing clear answers supported by current evidence.\n\n - Keep our trust center, policies, security documentation and approved responses accurate.\n\n - Partner with engineers to implement and document controls for access, devices, logging, incident response and business continuity.\n\n - Coordinate privacy and contractual requirements with legal and engineering, including data retention, deletion and subprocessors.\n\n - Manage vendor security assessments and track risks, owners and outstanding actions.\n\n - Build efficient processes that help the company move quickly while meeting its commitments.\n\n\nWHAT WE LOOK FOR\n\n - Experience personally owning SOC 2 Type II audits and ongoing compliance work.\n\n - Strong technical understanding of cloud infrastructure, identity and access, data handling and security controls.\n\n - Experience handling enterprise security reviews and working with engineering and legal teams.\n\n - A record of taking ownership, resolving difficult problems and following through.\n\n - Excellent writing and judgment. You can explain complex systems clearly and distinguish what is implemented from what is planned.\n\nYou'll have substantial ownership and work directly with the people building Wafer.\n\n\nHOW WE WORK\n\nFull-time, on-site in San Francisco.","compensation":{"compensationTierSummary":null,"scrapeableCompensationSalarySummary":null,"compensationTiers":[],"summaryComponents":[]}}],"apiVersion":"1"}