---
title: 'Software Architect at SambaNova Systems'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/software-architect-sambanova-systems-san-jose-d6242pyv3a4p'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-20'
---

# Software Architect at SambaNova Systems

- **Company:** SambaNova Systems
- **Location:** San Jose, CA
- **Compensation:** $245k–$325k
- **Posted:** 2026-06-03
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-20
- **Apply:** https://sambanova.ai/sambanova-available-positions/?gh_jid=6012016004

## Job description

SambaNova is a leader in next-generation AI infrastructure, delivering a full-stack inference platform for customers worldwide. At the core of SambaNova's technology is the RDU (Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit) — a chip built on a dataflow architecture rather than the traditional GPU model. Its decode performance is especially strong for agentic workloads like multi-turn agents, code generation, and long-running applications. RDUs are packaged into SambaRack, rack-scale hardware that lets customers deploy state-of-the-art models with better performance, greater energy efficiency, and faster time to value.

## About SambaNova

Join the company that's building the future of AI computing. SambaNova is disrupting the AI and high-performance computing space with an integrated hardware and software platform.

Our SambaStack inference serving platform is pushing the boundaries of inference serving for generative AI and large language models. We are a team of passionate innovators tackling some of the world's most challenging computational problems.

## About the Role

SambaNova is hiring a Software Architect for the SambaStack platform.

We help enterprises and service providers host their own AI inference platforms, powered by our state-of-the-art RDU (Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit) hardware architecture. Our cloud-agnostic, enterprise-grade inference serving platform enables seamless deployment, management, and scaling of foundation model workloads at production scale.

As a Software Architect on the SambaStack team, you will define the technical direction of the platform, shaping how it evolves to meet the demands of the world's most demanding enterprise AI workloads. You will own the cross-cutting architectural decisions that span teams and shape the platform's long-term trajectory.

This is a high-impact, high-visibility role at the intersection of:

- AI infrastructure
- Enterprise software
- Systems architecture and design
- Developer experience

## Key Responsibilities

- Own the end-to-end technical architecture of the SambaStack inference platform, ensuring it meets enterprise-grade standards for scalability, reliability, and performance.
- Define and drive architectural strategy across engineering teams, aligning long-term platform direction with product and business objectives.
- Lead design reviews for major new capabilities and cross-cutting system changes, providing authoritative technical guidance and raising the quality bar across the SambaStack engineering organization.
- Proactively identify and resolve systemic risks, including performance bottlenecks, reliability gaps, and scaling constraints, before they impact customers.
- Establish and evolve architectural standards, patterns, and best practices across the SambaStack engineering organization.
- Partner with ML Engineers, Product Managers, QA, and DevOps to translate complex, ambiguous requirements into sound architectural decisions.
- Serve as a technical thought leader and mentor, growing the architectural thinking and design skills of Software Engineers across the team.
- Evaluate emerging technologies and industry trends to inform the platform's technical roadmap.
- Architect new systems, components, and capabilities to solve new and interesting problems in the AI inference space.

Required Qualifications

- 12+ years of software engineering experience, including significant time in a role with organization-wide technical influence.
- Proven track record of owning large-scale distributed systems architectures end-to-end from design to production.
- Expertise building backend systems in Python, Go, or Rust.
- Expert-level understanding of Kubernetes, including Operators, Helm Charts, and cluster-scale resource management.
- Strong command of distributed systems principles: consistency, fault tolerance, observability, and performance at scale.
- Demonstrated experience setting technical direction across multiple teams and driving cross-functional alignment.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills: Able to clearly articulate complex architectural decisions to both engineering and non-technical audiences.
- Track record of mentoring more junior engineers and elevating team-wide engineering quality.

## Preferred Qualifications

- Deep familiarity with AI inference serving, orchestration, and the infrastructure challenges of LLM workloads at production scale.
- Experience designing systems for custom or novel hardware accelerators (e.g., dataflow architectures, GPUs, TPUs).
- Background in ML application optimization and productionization.
- Experience building cloud-native platforms for enterprise customers with stringent SLA and compliance requirements.
- Familiarity with AI coding assistants and the developer tooling ecosystem.
- Experience at a high-growth AI infrastructure company.

Base Salary Range:

Base Pay Range $245,000—$325,000 USD

Submission Guidelines Please note that in order to be considered an applicant for any position at SambaNova Systems, you must submit an application form for each position for which you believe you are qualified.

## EEO Policy

SambaNova Systems is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard basis of age (40 and over), color, disability, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, national origin/ancestry, race, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding), sexual orientation, and any other applicable status protected by federal, state, or local laws.

Benefits Summary for US-Based, Full-Time Employment Positions SambaNova offers a competitive total rewards package, including the base salary, plus equity and benefits. We cover 95% premium coverage for employee medical insurance, and 77% premium coverage for dependents and offer a Health Savings Account (HSA) with employer contribution. We also offer Dental, Vision, Short/Long term Disability, Basic Life, Voluntary Life, and AD&D insurance plans in addition to Flexible Spending Account (FSA) options like Health Care, Limited Purpose, and Dependent Care. Our library of well-being benefits available to you and your dependents includes a full subscription to Headspace, Gympass+ membership with access to physical gyms, One Medical membership, counseling services with an Employee Assistance Program, and much more.

## About SambaNova Systems

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: SambaNova Systems provides a full-stack AI platform, from specialized Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU) chips to an agentic AI inference platform, designed for enterprises and governments.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series E)
- **Headquarters**: San Jose, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2017
- **Founders**: Rodrigo Liang (Co-founder & CEO), Kunle Olukotun (Co-founder & Chief Technologist)

## Core Business
- **Primary Industry**: Artificial Intelligence / Enterprise AI Infrastructure
- **Target Customers**: Developers, large enterprises, government agencies, and data centers (B2B)
- **Mission Statement**: To be the most efficient and adaptable AI platform on the planet, empowering enterprises to control the trajectory of their data and AI future.

## Products & Services
- **SambaNova Suite**: The company's core product, a fully integrated AI platform that includes hardware, software, and models. It provides OpenAI-compatible APIs for inference.
- **SambaRack (SN40 & SN50)**: A state-of-the-art, rack-scale system optimized for AI inference. The SN50 is the fifth-generation system designed for fast agentic inference with high energy efficiency (average of 10 kWh for SN40).
- **Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU)**: A custom-designed AI chip (SN40L, SN50) with a unique three-tier memory architecture that delivers high speed and throughput for large models while using less power than traditional GPUs.
- **SambaOrchestrator**: A management tool for deploying, monitoring, and auto-scaling AI models across data centers.
- **Sovereign AI Platform**: An offering for governments and enterprises to keep data secure and governed while enabling business teams to use AI.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (Private company).
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of **$1.484B** (raised over multiple rounds, including a $350M Series E in early 2026).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Intel, GV (Google Ventures), BlackRock, Redline Capital Management, Atlantic Bridge Capital.
- **Growth Signals**: 
    - Raised a $350M Series E in early 2026.
    - A launch partner for Meta's Llama 4 series.
    - First platform to support all three variants of Llama 3.1 (8B, 70B, and 405B).
    - Has filed 313 patents related to parallel computing, computer memory, and instruction processing.
    - Customers include Blackbox and Texas Advanced Computing Center.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Full-Stack Integration**: Unlike many competitors, SambaNova controls the entire AI stack from the chip (RDU) to the software and models, allowing for deep optimization.
- **Efficiency**: The RDU's dataflow architecture is designed for high performance with significantly lower power consumption (best tokens per watt), a key differentiator for scaling AI.
- **Open-Source Focus**: The company is a strong supporter of open-source AI models, being a launch partner for major releases like Meta's Llama 4.

## Strategic Focus
- **Agentic AI**: The company is heavily focused on enabling complex, multi-step agentic AI workflows, with the SN50 chip and SambaOrchestrator built for this purpose.
- **Sovereign AI**: Targeting government and enterprise clients who need secure, on-premises or private cloud AI solutions.
- **Scaling Inference**: Prioritizing high-speed, low-latency inference for the largest open-source models (e.g., DeepSeek, Llama) at scale.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as a "smart and motivated team" that values "talent first," "innovation that impacts," and "trust and integrity." The company emphasizes collaboration across departments and access to founders.
- **Work Environment**: Offers flexible working hours and a hybrid/remote-friendly policy (Flexible PTO in the U.S.).
- **Notable Perks**: 
    - Flexible PTO
    - Parental Leave
    - Medical, Dental, and Vision benefits
    - 401k/Pensions
    - Gym Access
    - Mentorship and buddy programs
    - Internship programs
- **Engineering Culture**: A deep-tech environment where you work on cutting-edge AI hardware (RDUs) and software, pushing the boundaries of AI performance.

## Sources
1. [SambaNova.ai](https://sambanova.ai/)
2. [SambaNova About Us](https://sambanova.ai/company/about)
3. [SambaNova Careers](https://sambanova.ai/company/careers)
4. [SambaNova Job Openings](https://sambanova.ai/company/careers/job-openings)
5. [CB Insights Profile](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/sambanova-systems)

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