Research Scientist / Engineer – Performance Optimization

Luma
London, United Kingdom
Hybrid

Who this role is best for

A natural match if you have experience with GPU optimization and transformer models.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with deep experience in GPU optimization and distributed systems for transformer models
    — “expert GPU-optimization skills and a deep understanding of transformer internals”
  • Individuals who can write high-performance custom operations and leverage hardware features
    — “Write high-performance PyTorch, Triton, and CUDA, dropping to custom operations when needed”
  • Professionals comfortable with profiling and performance monitoring tooling
    — “Proficiency with profiling tools (NVIDIA Nsight, torch profiler, custom tooling)”

Things to consider

  • Commitment to mastering advanced CUDA techniques is implied for long-term success
    — “Knowledge of warp-level intrinsics and advanced CUDA optimization”

How to stand out

  • Highlight fused kernel development and tensor core utilization in your projects
    — “Develop fused kernels and leverage tensor cores and modern hardware features”
  • Emphasize experience with distributed multi-node deployment in your resume
    — “Optimize model architectures and implementations for distributed multi-node production deployment”
  • Showcase your ability to build performance monitoring and automation tools
    — “Build performance monitoring and analysis tools and automation”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · MediumAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • Profile and optimize GPU/CPU/accelerator code
  • Develop fused kernels
  • Build performance monitoring tools
Typical background
PhD in Computer Science or related fieldExperience in AI research

Skills & requirements

Required

Triton/cuda ProgrammingGPU OptimizationPyTorchProfiling ToolsTransformer Architectures

Preferred

Compilers And ExportersInference Workload OptimizationTriton CompilerWarp-level Intrinsics

Stack & domain

TritonCUDAPyTorchNvidia NsightTorch ProfilerCustom OperationsFused KernelsTensor CoresDistributed Multi-node DeploymentPerformance Monitoring And Analysis ToolsOptimization Techniques For Transformer ModelsPerformance OptimizationGPU OptimizationTransformer ArchitecturesAttention Mechanisms

About the role

Original posting from Luma via Ashby

You'll make Luma's multimodal models fast — profiling and optimizing GPU, CPU, and accelerator code so they train efficiently and deploy at scale without sacrificing quality. You'll write the kernels and operations that get the most out of the hardware.

This is deep performance work: fused kernels, tensor cores, Triton and CUDA, distributed multi-node deployment. It fits someone with expert GPU-optimization skills and a deep understanding of transformer internals. If you're not at home in CUDA, Triton, and profilers, this is the wrong depth.

What You'll Own

  • Profile and optimize GPU/CPU/accelerator code for maximum utilization and minimal latency.
  • Write high-performance PyTorch, Triton, and CUDA, dropping to custom operations when needed.
  • Develop fused kernels and leverage tensor cores and modern hardware features across platforms.
  • Optimize model architectures and implementations for distributed multi-node production deployment.
  • Build performance monitoring and analysis tools and automation.
  • Research and implement cutting-edge optimization techniques for transformer models.

First 90 Days

One way the first 90 could unfold.

  • Days 1–30 — Immerse & Diagnose: Profile the current training and inference paths and find the biggest performance wins.
  • Days 30–60 — Ship & Validate: Land a kernel or architecture optimization that measurably improves utilization or latency.
  • Days 60–90 — Scale & Systemize: Build the monitoring and automation that keeps performance gains from regressing.

What You Bring

  • Expert-level Triton/CUDA programming and GPU optimization.
  • Strong PyTorch skills, including kernel development and custom operations.
  • Proficiency with profiling tools (NVIDIA Nsight, torch profiler, custom tooling).
  • Deep understanding of transformer architectures and attention mechanisms.

Nice to Have

  • Experience with compilers and exporters (torch.compile, TensorRT, ONNX, XLA).
  • Experience optimizing inference workloads for latency and throughput.
  • Triton compiler and kernel fusion techniques.
  • Knowledge of warp-level intrinsics and advanced CUDA optimization.

About Luma: Luma's mission is to build unified general intelligence that can generate, understand, and operate in the physical world. We believe multimodality is critical for intelligence — the next step beyond language models comes from vision. Luma is an equal opportunity employer.

Source: Luma careers (Ashby)

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