{"id":462265,"url":"https://alion.io/job/cerence-sr-principal-software-engineer","title":"Sr. Principal Software Engineer","company":{"id":178070,"name":"Cerence","domain":"cerence.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/cerence","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"C","score":62,"open_postings":27,"ghost_share":0.63,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":35,"computed_at":"2026-11-09T06:03:00Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"board_field","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":{"min":185000,"max":280000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":280000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"AWQ","optional":false},{"name":"CUDA","optional":false},{"name":"GPTQ","optional":false},{"name":"KV Cache","optional":false},{"name":"llama.cpp","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"Quantization","optional":false},{"name":"Speculative Decoding","optional":false},{"name":"TensorRT-LLM","optional":false},{"name":"vLLM","optional":false},{"name":"TensorRT","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-06-30T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-23","last_verified_at":"2026-11-09T03:59:58Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":132,"trust":{"level":"ghost","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale","company_stale"],"days_open":132},"description":"AI That Moves the World. Careers That Move You Forward.\nAt Cerence AI, you’ll help transform advanced AI into trusted, real-world solutions that make complex technology - think vehicles, robots, smart manufacturing, and emerging intelligent devices - more natural, reliable, and useful. Building on decades of innovation and global deployment in automotive, we are extending our expertise into new products, markets, and intelligent systems.\nAs part of our global team, you’ll work alongside leading innovators, researchers, engineers, and business leaders to solve meaningful challenges and turn breakthrough ideas into technology people use every day. You’ll have the opportunity to make a visible impact, help shape Cerence AI’s next chapter, and move your own career forward.\nWho is Cerence AI?\nCerence AI is the global leader in AI for transportation, specialized in building AI and voice-powered companions for cars, two-wheelers, and more that enable people to focus on what matters most. With over 500 million cars shipped with Cerence AI's technology, we partner with leading automakers (such as Volkswagen, Mercedes, Audi, Toyota and many more), mobility providers, and technology companies to power intuitive, integrated experiences that create safer, more connected, and more enjoyable journeys for drivers and passengers alike.\nOur Driving Force\nOur team is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of AI innovation, working around the globe with headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts, USA and 16 other offices across Europe, Asia, and North America. We bring together diverse backgrounds, and varied skill sets with the shared goal of advancing the next generation of transportation user experiences. Our culture is customer-centric, collaborative, fast-paced, and fun, with continuous opportunities for learning and development to support your career growth.\nInterested in having a significant impact in a dynamic industry with a high-performing global team? We’re looking for an exceptional Senior Principal Software Engineer who is ready to drive the future of mobility with us!\nJob Description:\nWhat You Will Work On\nOptimize and deploy high -performance LLM inference pipelines \nOwn inference runtimes across data center, edge, and embedded platforms \nPush model performance through quantization, kernel fusion, and cache optimization \nDrive latency and throughput improvements that directly impact production products \nEnable efficient, reliable deployment without external vendor dependency \nCore Responsibilities\nInference Engines & Runtime\nBuild deep expertise and ownership of: \nvLLM \nTensorRT-LLM \nllama.cpp \nQAIRT \nExtend and tune inference engines using custom CUDA kernels \nAdapt runtimes for constrained and embedded deployment environments \nQuantization & Numerical Optimisation\nImplement and evaluate quantisation strategies: \nINT8, INT4, FP4, FP8, mixed precision \nAWQ \nGPTQ \nBalance accuracy, latency, memory footprint, and throughput \nKV Cache Optimization\nOptimize key-value cache performance through: \nPaging \nPrefix caching \nCache-aware memory layout design \nReduce memory pressure while sustaining high throughput \nLatency & Throughput Optimisation\nDesign and tune: \nBatching strategies \nContinuous batching \nSpeculative decoding \nOptimize tail latency and tokens/sec under real production traffic patterns \nWhat Success Looks Like\nModels deploy efficiently on edge and embedded devices, not just servers \nTokens/sec significantly outperform baseline implementations \nEnd-to-end latency is minimized and predictable \nInference cost per request is materially reduced \nThe company is no longer dependent on partners for inference optimization \nRequired Experience & Skills\nStrongly Required\nProven experience optimizing ML inference performance in production \nDeep understanding of GPU architecture and memory hierarchies \nHands-on experience with CUDA and low-level performance tuning \nExperience deploying models beyond research environments \nCritical Technical Skills\nInference engines: vLLM, TensorRT-LLM, llama.cpp, QAIRT \nCUDA kernel development and profiling \nQuantisation techniques: INT8/INT4/FP4/FP8, AWQ, GPTQ \nKV cache optimisation and memory layout design \nLatency optimisation: batching, speculative decoding, continuous batching \nCommon Problems You’ll Be Solving\nDeploy efficiently on edge or embedded targets \nAchieve competitive tokens/sec \nReduce and stabilize inference latency \nYou will be responsible for closing these gaps, creating a major competitive advantage.\nWhat we offer\nWe offer a generous compensation and benefits package (in addition to the base salary), including:\nSalary range $185,000.00 USD - $280,000.00 USD It is not typical for offers to be made at or near the top of the range. The actual salary will be determined based on experience and other job-related factors. \nAnnual bonus opportunity \nInsurance coverage (medical, dental, vision, life, and disability) \nPaid time off \nPaid holidays \nCompany contribution to the 401K\nEquity awards for certain positions and levels \nRemote and/or hybrid work available depending on the position \nAll compensation and benefits are subject to the terms and conditions of the underlying plans or programs, as applicable, and may be amended, terminated, or replaced from time to time.\nCerence AI (NASDAQ: CRNC) helps people and intelligent systems work together naturally and reliably. Proven at global scale in automotive, Cerence provides the trusted interaction and action layer connecting people, machines, and intelligent systems. Its AI platform enables natural interaction and dependable action across complex real-world environments where reliability, safety, security, and performance are critical. Working with customers and partners worldwide, Cerence transforms advanced AI into trusted solutions that bridge the gap between AI potential and real-world performance.\nFor more information, visit www.cerence.ai.\nEQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER\nCerence is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of age, race, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sex, sex stereotyping, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, citizenship status, sexual orientation, protected military or veteran status, genetic information and other protected classifications. Cerence Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.\nAll prospective and current Employees need to remain vigilant when it comes to executing security policies in the workplace. This includes:\n- Following workplace security protocols and training programs to familiarize with the ways to maintain a safe workplace.\n- Following security procedures to report any suspicious activity.\n- Having respect for corporate security procedures to allow those procedures to be effective.\n- Adhering to company's compliance and regulations.\n- Encouraging to follow a zero tolerance for workplace violence.\n- Basic knowledge of information security and data privacy requirements (e.g., how to protect data & how to be handling this data).\n- Demonstrative knowledge of information security through internal training programs.","description_format":"text","description_chars":7286,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["401k plan","Equity","Hybrid work","Insurance coverage"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Conversational AI","Speech & Audio AI","Automotive Software"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-06T11:26:14Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":8,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.3,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":132,"expected_fill_days":35,"reasons":["conf:2","stale_co","ghost","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-11-09T06:03:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":280000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/cerence-sr-principal-software-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/cerence-sr-principal-software-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-09T13:46:03Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":18307,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-10T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":178070},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=178070"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fcerence-sr-principal-software-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fcerence-sr-principal-software-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fcerence-sr-principal-software-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/cerence-sr-principal-software-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fcerence-sr-principal-software-engineer"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":462265}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"cerence.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":462265},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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