Machine Learning Architect

About Ayo

Ayo is a venture-backed early-stage startup focused on developing processors specialized for machine learning. Our processor aims to offer orders of magnitude improvements in speed and power efficiency, potentially displacing the GPU as the dominant AI computing platform.

Role

We are seeking a deep ML practitioner to join as a founding team member. This role requires hands-on experience working with foundation models at scale, understanding the intricacies of scaling models across thousands of GPUs, and bringing this depth to novel hardware. Prior hardware experience is not necessary.

What You’ll Do

• Deploy and run trained models on prototype hardware and digital twins, producing working demonstrations on our chips.
• Develop and adapt algorithms to train models on novel processing environments, including our prototype hardware.
• Work with hardware engineers to define and refine processor architecture based on insights learned through model training and experimentation.
• Maintain a deep curiosity about what makes machine learning systems work and apply this curiosity to new hardware environments.
• Support go-to-market strategy development

What We’re Looking For

• PhD in machine learning, representation learning, theory of computation, or equivalent industry experience working on foundation models at scale.
• Experience training models at scale - distributed training across many GPUs, working with large datasets and compute.
• Built and trained neural networks from scratch.
• Deep knowledge of the structure and internal operation of neural networks - including how and why they behave the way they do (e.g., interpretability or explainability work is a plus).
• Excitement about applying deep AI expertise to new and novel hardware environments - you don’t need prior experience with photonics or silicon, but you want to learn.
• Fluent knowledge of Python.
• Fluency in PyTorch (preferred), TensorFlow, JAX, or other industry-standard ML software libraries.

Why Ayo

You'll be a founding AI team member - shaping how we think about and deploy AI as a company. We are tackling a genuinely hard and interesting problem: unseating the GPU as the dominant AI compute platform. Early-stage means real ownership, real impact, and meaningful equity. Competitive salary. Equity commensurate with stage and seniority. Benefits package including health, dental, and vision. Fully onsite in Boston - we are a collaborative, in-person team.