Tech Lead, Research Scientist - DPU & AI Infra

Tech Lead, Research Scientist - DPU & AI Infra

Responsibilities

About the Team:
The Byte Dance DPU (Data Processing Unit) team is building the foundational computing infrastructure for Byte Dance and Volcano Engine Public Cloud. Our mission is to advance the architecture, development, and research of next-generation software-hardware technologies across compute, networking, and storage for cloud and AI computing.

Responsibilities:

• Design and develop DPU network software with a focus on high performance, low latency, and reliability.
• Collaborate with hardware teams to build software-hardware co-design solutions for networking and storage acceleration.
• Explore AI/ML infrastructure acceleration, leveraging DPUs, GPUs, and custom hardware to optimize distributed training and inference.
• Drive end-to-end performance optimization, from OS kernels and drivers to user-space runtime systems.
• Contribute to architecture design, technical proposals, and long-term research directions.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• B.S./M.S. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related fields; or Ph.D. with strong research/publications.
• 5+ years of relevant industry experience (exception for Ph.D. with strong background).
• Proficiency in C/C++ development and debugging.
• Strong Linux systems development experience.
• Solid understanding of compute, network architecture, and operating systems.
• Background in at least one of: software-hardware co-design, distributed systems, high-performance networking, or AI/ML systems.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Ph.D. in related fields with research training and publications.
• Experience with software-hardware co-design (networking, storage, or distributed compute).
• Hands-on experience with network virtualization (OVS, SR-IOV, eBPF).
• Familiarity with DPDK and high-performance user-space networking.
• Bonus points for hardware acceleration experience, FPGA/ASIC/GPU/CUDA.
• Bonus points for experience with NCCL Collectives along with AI communication patterns and parallelization techniques.
• Proven experience designing and building AI/ML infrastructure related but not limited to inference kv cache system, data preprocessing system.

Job Information

The base salary range for this position is $198360 - $416100 annually. Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate's qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location.

Benefits include medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) savings plan with company match, paid parental leave, short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, wellbeing benefits, and 10 paid holidays per year, 10 paid sick days per year and 17 days of Paid Personal Time.

Byte Dance is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. We are passionate about celebrating our diverse voices and creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach.

Byte Dance is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws.