Firmware Engineer, ASIC Drivers

OpenAI’s Hardware organization develops silicon and system-level solutions designed for the unique demands of advanced AI workloads. The team is responsible for building the next generation of AI-native silicon while working closely with software and research partners to co-design hardware tightly integrated with AI models. In addition to delivering production-grade silicon for OpenAI’s supercomputing infrastructure, the team also creates custom design tools and methodologies that accelerate innovation and enable hardware optimized specifically for AI.

We are looking for an embedded engineer to help build firmware and drivers for OpenAI’s in house AI accelerator. This role involves designing and developing drivers for a large array of HW components, writing high throughput and low latency firmware code, and investigating bring-up and production issues.

• Design and implement drivers for a large array of hardware components.

• Design and implement low-latency and high throughput embedded SW to manage HW resources.

• Work with adjacent SW and HW teams to implement requirements, debug issues and shape future generations of the HW.

• Collaborate with vendors to integrate their technologies within our systems.

• Bring up and debug firmware/driver on new platforms.

• Come up with processes and debug issues raised in the field.

• Set up monitoring, integration testing and diagnostics tools.

• 5+ years of experience working in embedded SW space.

• Ability to thrive in ambiguity and learn new technologies.

• Strong programming skills in C/C++ or Rust.

• Experience developing high throughput, low latency and multi-threaded code.

• Experience working with real time operating systems (RTOS).

• Experience developing HW drivers and working with HW engineers and/or vendors.

• Knowledge of common embedded protocols, e.g. UART, I2C, SPI, etc.

• Knowledge of microprocessor and common ARM architectures (e.g. AMBA) is a plus.

• Knowledge of PCIe, ethernet and other high BW communication protocols is a plus.

• Experience with GPUs or other compute HW is a plus.

• Experience deploying large compute clusters is a plus.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

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