Forward Deployed Engineer

About Quadric

Quadric is redefining edge AI with the industry's first General Purpose Neural Processing Unit (GPNPU), enabling developers to run both neural network inference and conventional C++ code on a single programmable architecture. Our technology powers intelligent edge devices across automotive, industrial, robotics, and embedded systems.

Founded by technologists from MIT and Carnegie Mellon, Quadric is a well-funded, Series C semiconductor IP company with marquee customers including Denso, Kyocera, and Hitachi, and a growing licensing business.

The Opportunity

You'll own the technical path from customer evaluation to silicon design and win on a genuinely novel architecture, the Quadric Chimera GPNPU, which runs everything from CNNs to LLMs to arbitrary C++ on one core, with no fallback processor. Unlike a FAANG solutions role, you'll work the entire stack: quantization, custom kernels, and compiler and your fingerprints will be on chips that ship in cars, cameras, and network appliances.

At a Series C company, every design win has outsized impact. Our FDEs also build with frontier agentic tooling (Claude Code-based agentic workflows) — you won't just be supporting the product, you'll be inventing how edge-AI field engineering is done.

What You'll Do

• Own the Technical Path to Design Win
• Convert 2-3 active customer evaluations into committed design wins by getting customer workloads running at target latency and accuracy on Chimera.
• Port customer workloads onto Chimera — architect, adapt, profile, and write custom kernels when required.
• Embed with Customer Engineering Teams
• Work on-site and remotely with customer engineering teams: debug failures, hit benchmark targets, and guide model-architecture tradeoffs.
• Drive evaluations forward end-to-end, from first technical conversation through design win.
• Build the Agentic FDE Toolkit
• Codify what you learn into reusable assets — SDK skills, porting playbooks, and agentic content — so each subsequent engagement moves faster than the last.
• Build applications and benchmark collateral that support future customer engagements.
• Close the Loop Internally
• Partner with engineering and product teams to relay customer learnings and shape the roadmap.
• Contribute skills and playbooks to Quadric's growing agentic FDE toolset.

What Success Looks Like

• Within your first 6-12 months, you'll:
• Convert 2-3 active customer evaluations into committed design wins on the Chimera platform.
• Build deep fluency across the Chimera stack — quantization, custom kernels, and compiler tooling — well enough to unblock customers independently.
• Establish reusable SDK skills and porting playbooks that measurably shorten the next engagement's timeline.
• Become a trusted technical partner to customer engineering teams, known for translating ambiguous requirements into shipped results.
• Help define and refine Quadric's agentic (Claude Code-based) FDE workflow — there's no existing playbook yet; you'll help write it.

Required

• Strong C++ and Python; has written performance-critical code for a constrained target (DSP, NPU, GPU, or embedded SoC).
• Systems-level performance intuition — memory bandwidth, data movement, cycle-level reasoning — and can read a profile and know where the time went.
• High agency and independent problem-solving; methodical and empirical rather than theoretical.
• Comfortable operating without a playbook and in ambiguity — this role is still being defined.

PREFERRED

• Prior FAE, Sales Engineering, or FDE title — or startup experience as the de facto owner of an end-to-end implementation.
• Familiarity with agentic dev tooling (Claude Code, MCP) — or strong enthusiasm to adopt it.
• Background at NPU/edge-AI IP and silicon companies (e.g., Qualcomm SNPE/QNN, NVIDIA TensorRT/Jetson field engineering, Ceva, Cadence Tensilica, Synopsys ARC, Arm, Hailo, Ambarella, SiMa.ai, Axelera, EdgeCortix).
• Background at inference-focused startups (e.g., Groq, Untether, Tenstorrent) in field/customer engineering or kernel teams.
• Palantir-style FDE experience — candidates with embedded or ML-systems backgrounds only.
• Experience at technical trading arms optimizing kernels or hardware for speed (e.g., DRW, Hudson River, D.E. Shaw, Citadel).
• Big-firm consulting background, provided the candidate personally did the hands-on technical work rather than managing it.

What We're Looking For

• Strong C++ and Python; has written performance-critical code for a constrained target (DSP, NPU, GPU, or embedded SoC).
• Systems-level performance intuition — memory bandwidth, data movement, cycle-level reasoning — and can read a profile and know where the time went.
• High agency and independent problem-solving; methodical and empirical rather than theoretical.
• Comfortable operating without a playbook and in ambiguity — this role is still being defined.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary and equity
• Company-paid life insurance, plus voluntary supplemental life, STD, and LTD insurance
• Commuter support, including parking or Caltrain reimbursement — our office is within walking distance of the Caltrain station
• FSA + HSA
• Paid parental leave
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Flexible PTO and winter holiday shutdown
• Catered lunch each day in our office
• Downtown Burlingame office location, close to shops, cafes, and local amenities
• Collaborative, low-ego culture with significant ownership and impact

About Quadric

Founded in 2016 and based in downtown Burlingame, California, Quadric is building the world's first supercomputer designed for the real-time needs of edge devices. Quadric aims to empower developers in every industry with superpowers to create tomorrow's technology, today. The company was co-founded by technologists from MIT and Carnegie Mellon, who were previously the technical co-founders of the Bitcoin computing company 21.

What We Offer

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance from day one — premiums covered at 99% for employees
• Company-paid life insurance, plus voluntary supplemental life, STD, and LTD insurance
• Commuter support, including parking or Caltrain reimbursement — our office is within walking distance of the Caltrain station
• FSA + HSA
• Paid parental leave
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Flexible PTO and winter holiday shutdown
• Catered lunch each day in our office
• Downtown Burlingame office location, close to shops, cafes, and local amenities
• Collaborative, low-ego culture with significant ownership and impact