GPU Performance Engineer

Overview

We are looking for a GPU Performance Engineer to build highly optimized CUDA kernels for low-latency inference. This role is focused on workloads where off-the-shelf runtimes and vendor libraries do not fully exploit the structure of the model, and where custom kernels, memory layouts, and execution strategies can deliver meaningful gains.

You will work closely with quantitative researchers and engineers to understand model structure, identify computational bottlenecks, and turn mathematical ideas into production-grade GPU implementations. You will use your understanding of GPU hardware to help shape models that are both mathematically effective and efficient to run. The problems span compact neural networks, tree-based models, and other structured inference workloads where latency, throughput, and efficiency all matter.

This role is a strong fit for someone who enjoys low-level optimization, performance analysis, and translating abstract models into hardware-efficient code.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and optimize custom CUDA kernels for latency-critical inference workloads
• Develop fine-grained GPU implementations tailored to specific model structures
• Analyze quantitative research models and computational bottlenecks to identify opportunities for parallelization and hardware-efficient execution
• Collaborate directly with quantitative researchers to translate mathematical models into high-performance compute pipelines
• Optimize end-to-end inference performance through kernel tuning, memory-layout design, execution strategy, I/O optimization, and precision tradeoffs
• Profile and benchmark GPU performance
• Improve latency and throughput in production inference systems
• Contribute to GPU architecture decisions and performance best practices

What you can expect from us

Real Impact: By integrating sophisticated coding techniques with innovative engineering ideas, we design and optimize systems that can process massive amounts of data while still ensuring high performance and stability. You’ll see how your contributions towards developing and supporting leading-edge hardware and software technologies make a firm-wide impact that makes us all smarter, faster, and better.

Collaboration: You will partner closely with our Infrastructure and Strategy Developer Teams to deliver and manage scalable and highly performant systems to support trading in the region and globally.

Growth: For many of our roles, we don’t expect you to have prior industry experience in proprietary trading or financial services to succeed at Susquehanna. We’re looking for people who are naturally curious, relentless problem solvers, and have the desire to continuously innovate, learn, and grow.

Benefits: Susquehanna offers a wide array of competitive employee perks & benefits

What we’re looking for

• Strong proficiency in writing and optimizing CUDA kernels
• Solid programming experience in C/C++ (preferred)
• Deep understanding of GPU architecture, including memory hierarchy, SIMT execution, occupancy, and latency/throughput tradeoffs
• Ability to reason about numerical stability, precision, performance tradeoffs, and how model design choices affect hardware efficiency
• Strong problem-solving skills and comfort working with low-level systems

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD in Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science, Engineering, or related quantitative field
• Strong background in linear algebra, probability, numerical methods, or scientific computing
• Experience working with quantitative research teams or financial models
• Demonstrated ability to improve real-world inference performance beyond baseline framework or library implementations
• Familiarity with PTX-level behavior, tensor core utilization, or architecture-specific tuning
• Exposure to ONNX Runtime, TensorRT, Triton, TVM, or similar systems
• Exposure to:
  • Neural Networks
  • Tree-based models (e.g. KightGBM)
  • State space models (e.g. Mamba architectures)
• Experience with kernel fusion, custom operators, model compilation, or graph-level optimization

About Susquehanna

Susquehanna is a global quantitative trading firm founded by a group of friends who share a passion for game theory and probabilistic thinking. We have incorporated this approach into our culture, where you will find relentless problem solvers within each of our core disciplines: Trading, Technology, and Quantitative Research. From offices around the world, our employees collaborate to make optimal decisions and are driven by the desire to achieve winning results together.

What we do

We are experts in trading essentially all listed financial products and asset classes, with a focus on derivatives trading. Through market making and market taking, we handle millions of trading transactions around the world every day, providing liquidity and ensuring competitive prices for buyers and sellers. While our presence in the market is broad, our trading desks are highly specialised, allowing for a deep understanding of unique drivers of each asset class.

Equal Opportunity Statement

We encourage applications from candidates from all backgrounds, and we welcome requests for reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process to ensure that you can best demonstrate your abilities.

If you're a recruiting agency and want to partner with us, please reach out to [email protected]. Any resume or referral submitted in the absence of a signed agreement will not be eligible for an agency fee.

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