Silicon Software Lead

NORMAL COMPUTING | BUILD WITH US Normal is an applied AI company solving the hardest problems in AI and silicon. We build foundational hardware and software for the semiconductor industry, critical AI infrastructure, and the broader systems that power our world, in partnership with the world's most advanced institutions. We work as one team across New York City, Silicon Valley (Mountain View), London, Copenhagen, and Seoul. THE ROLE Normal's ASIC computes using stochastic analog dynamics in memory, and the software layer that makes it programmable and performant for real inference workloads does not yet exist in any standard form. As our Silicon Software Lead, you will lead the team that creates it: the compiler, runtime, kernels, drivers, and hardware abstraction layer that turn our chip into a platform. You will set technical direction, stay hands-on in the stack, and co-design with hardware architects so that software constraints shape the silicon rather than arriving after it. This is a role for someone who has built software for hardware that did not exist yet, and wants to do it where the software genuinely impacts and optimizes the hardware. WHAT YOU WILL OWN - Team Leadership: Lead and grow the silicon software team spanning compiler, runtime, and systems software, staying close enough to the code to review designs and unblock hard problems directly. - Software Stack Architecture: Own the architecture of the stack from ML framework ingestion through compilation, scheduling, and memory management to execution on Normal hardware. - Software/Hardware Co-Design: Partner with silicon architects on ISA definition and the hardware abstraction layer, ensuring the chip is compilable and programmable, not just simulatable. - Runtime and Tooling: Drive development of the runtime, kernels, drivers, profiling, and debugging tools that make the hardware usable for real inference workloads. - Simulation-to-Silicon Continuity: Keep the software stack running against simulation, FPGA prototypes, and silicon as the hardware matures, so software development never waits on tapeout. - Roadmap and Hiring: Set the silicon software roadmap, define milestones against the hardware program, and hire the engineers who deliver it. WHAT MAKES YOU A GREAT FIT - Substantial experience building software stacks for accelerators or non-standard hardware targets: compilers, runtimes, kernels, or drivers - Experience leading engineers as a technical lead or manager while staying hands-on in design and code - Strong systems programming skills in C++, Rust, or equivalent, with fluency in Python - Deep understanding of ML inference workloads and the constraints that shape their execution on hardware - Experience with compiler frameworks such as MLIR or LLVM, or with inference runtimes and kernel development - Comfort building software for hardware that is still evolving, from simulation through bring-up - Track record of hiring and…