Head of Software – AI Toolchain & Developer

Brain Chip is hiring a Head of Software to define and deliver a world-class software toolchain and developer experience for Akida NPUs spanning Akida 1500, Akida 2500, and our Gen3 roadmap.

This is a high impact role reporting directly to executive leadership.

Whether you're currently leading a small team or driving strategy as a senior engineer, this role offers a significant increase in scope, ownership, and impact.

We’re looking for a high-energy, high-ownership, player/coach leader who wants more impact, loves collaborating with hardware teams, and enjoys building tools that make developers wildly productive.

You’ll guide the evolution of MetaTF with user experience as a primary design principle, while owning execution excellence across performance modeling, RTOS/embedded enablement, training/quantization pipelines, and cost-aware cloud training operations.

What you’ll do

• Own the multi-generation toolchain strategy (Akida 1500 → Akida 2500 → Gen3): workflows, APIs, model/operator compatibility, versioning, migration paths, and release discipline.
• Lead the next phase of MetaTF to strengthen usability and end-to-end developer workflow (model → quantize → compile → deploy → debug/profile), with excellent documentation and predictable experiences.
• Drive execution excellence across the Gen3 workplan:
• runtime systems and interfaces (host + device)
• profiling and performance regression detection
• emulation/simulation enablement (as needed to accelerate validation)
• Oversee company-wide performance modeling: fast model analysis, operator frequency insights, latency/throughput/energy estimation approaches (as applicable), and reporting that teams trust.
• Lead RTOS and embedded enablement across products: portability strategy, testability, and clear boundaries between runtime and low-level interfaces.
• Own training, quantization, and conversion pipelines so research and product teams can move smoothly from experimentation to deployment.
• Steward cloud training costs: visibility, attribution, guardrails, and practical optimization, balancing speed with sustainability.
• Establish best practices for agent-assisted development (design, coding, maintenance): accelerating delivery while protecting quality, security, and maintainability.
• Build a culture of strong collaboration across hardware, software, and research turning architecture discussions into shipped capabilities.

What you’ll bring

• Player/coach leadership: You lead teams effectively and you’re comfortable diving into architecture, design reviews, critical-path debugging, and unblockers when needed.
• International team experience: Proven success leading globally distributed teams across time zones and cultures with clear priorities, crisp communication, and reliable delivery.
• Toolchain/platform shipping track record: Experience building and shipping developer-facing platforms such as SDKs, compilers/runtimes, ML deployment tool chains, embedded systems, or performance tooling.
• NPU/accelerator depth: Strong understanding of the hardware/software boundary for accelerators, including:
• memory movement and bandwidth constraints
• DMA-style data paths and scheduling considerations
• appreciation for dataflow-oriented thinking and near-memory compute concepts
• Developer experience instincts: You care about how tools feel—onboarding, docs, reproducibility, error messages, debuggability, and “time-to-first-success.”
• Executive communication: You can communicate at multiple altitudes—deep technical reviews, crisp written decision docs, and clear exec-level updates that drive decisions.
• Determined and flexible: You push through ambiguity and deliver outcomes, while adapting quickly as new information emerges.
• High-trust collaboration: You set a high bar, stay constructive under pressure, and build teams people want to work with.
• You will trust your team to get the job done but not hesitate to put hands on the keyboard to meet deadlines.

Education

• BS required in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, from a top tier school or equivalent practical experience.
• MS preferred (EE/CE/CS or similar), especially with exposure to computer architecture, compilers, embedded/RTOS, or ML…