Research Engineer – Inference

• Make models fast, efficient, and production-ready
• Optimize performance through quantization, batching, compilation, and hardware-aware execution

We’re inviting an experienced, generalist AI research engineer to join our core team at Mother, building our first computer, the Mother I. We are looking for a self-starter who is a highly motivated and autonomous operator to join us at our Mountain View office.

What is Mother?

We are tool builders. Our mission is to create tools that enable endless creativity and amplify our inherent human abilities.

What is Mother I?

Too much of today’s AI compute is concentrated in the hands of a few large companies. We believe in local and open-source AI—your AI should truly be your own.

Mother I is an AI supercomputer designed to run a wide range of open-source models locally. At its core is a software stack that makes it remarkably easy to run models and perform powerful tasks—directly on your own machine.

What you’ll do

• Optimize and deploy state-of-the-art AI models for efficient, real-world inference
• Design and implement high-performance systems for low-latency, high-throughput model serving
• Work across the stack—from model architecture and kernels to runtime systems and APIs
• Improve performance through quantization, batching, compilation, and hardware-aware optimizations
• Build infrastructure to run models reliably in on-device and on-prem environments
• Collaborate with research and product teams to turn cutting-edge models into production systems

What you bring

• 4+ years of experience in machine learning engineering, systems engineering, or applied research
• Strong experience working with deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch)
• Solid understanding of model inference, performance bottlenecks, and optimization techniques
• Experience writing high-performance, concurrent code
• Strong CS fundamentals, including systems, memory, and compute efficiency
• Ability to take models from research to production-ready systems
• Comfort working on ambitious, open-ended technical problems

Nice to have

• Experience with model optimization techniques (quantization, pruning, distillation, compilation)
• Familiarity with inference runtimes (e.g., TensorRT, ONNX Runtime, TVM, vLLM, etc.)
• Experience working close to hardware (GPU/CPU/accelerators)
• Interest in edge/on-device AI deployment
• Background in distributed systems or large-scale model serving

Tech stack
Python · PyTorch · Rust · CUDA (nice to have) · PostgreSQL · Linux (Ubuntu/Debian)

Perks

• Computer setup of your choice (plus a Mother I Computer)
• Blue Shield Platinum PPO plans with $0 paycheck deduction (covers all dependents)
• Dental (including orthodontic coverage) and vision plans with $0 paycheck deduction
• Company paid life insurance
• Fully stocked kitchen and catered lunch 5 days a week
• Office in Mountain View (near Caltrain) with free, easy parking Unlimited PTO

How to apply

Send us an email with a copy of your resume or LinkedIn, your GitHub, and any projects you think we should see to [email protected]