Job Description
Job Title: Senior Performance Engineer (Consultant)
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Term: 3-Month Contract
The Opportunity
We are seeking an elite Senior Performance Engineer for a short-term consulting engagement to drive critical optimizations in our autonomous vehicle’s onboard software stack.
This role requires a deep-dive analysis of our near real-time Linux-based system , identifying and eliminating bottlenecks to ensure maximum efficiency, reliability, and deterministic performance . This is a unique opportunity to apply your expertise to one of the most challenging problems in technology today, with a direct and measurable impact on the performance of our autonomous fleet.
What You'll Do
- Conduct comprehensive performance analysis across the entire software stack, from the Linux kernel and drivers to the application layer.
- Utilize advanced profiling and tracing tools ( perf, eBPF, ftrace , etc.) to diagnose CPU, GPU, memory, I/O, and network bottlenecks.
- Optimize system and thread scheduling to meet near real-time deadlines and minimize latency in critical processing pipelines.
- Analyze Inter-Process Communication (IPC) mechanisms to increase throughput and reduce overhead.
- Identify and remediate architectural pitfalls that can cause performance degradation, memory fragmentation, or unpredictable timing .
- Collaborate closely with core engineering teams to implement architectural improvements .
- Develop and document best practices and performance-aware design patterns for engineers.
- Establish KPIs and monitoring tools to prevent performance regressions.
Who You Are
- Linux expert with deep knowledge of kernel internals , including scheduling, memory management, and networking.
- Hands-on experience with performance profiling and tracing tools such as perf, eBPF, and ftrace .
- Proficient in C++ and other systems programming languages for high-performance, multithreaded applications.
- Strong understanding of modern CPU and GPU architectures and experience leveraging hardware acceleration (CUDA, TensorRT, or equivalent).
- Experienced in optimizing low-level software stacks , from hardware interrupts to application logic.
- Familiarity with real-time Linux patches (e.g., PREEMPT_RT) and deterministic scheduling.
- Able to communicate complex technical issues clearly to both engineers and leadership.
Preferred Qualifications
- Prior experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, aerospace, or high-frequency trading (HFT) .
- Experience with robotics middleware (e.g., ROS, DDS) and performance tuning.
- Knowledge of hardware-specific acceleration and GPU optimization pipelines.
- Demonstrated ability to design custom performance analysis tooling when needed.
Skills
- Expert in Linux systems and performance analysis tools : perf, eBPF, ftrace.
- Systems programming and multithreaded application optimization in C++.
- Deep understanding of hardware-specific acceleration : CUDA, TensorRT, GPU programming.
- Performance tuning across CPU, GPU, memory, I/O, and network subsystems .
- Knowledge of real-time Linux patches (PREEMPT_RT) and deterministic scheduling.
- Expertise in IPC optimization, low-latency pipelines, and performance KPIs .
- Strong analytical, statistical, and benchmarking skills .
- Excellent communication and documentation skills .
Job Tags
Contract work, Temporary work,