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Model Optimization - Lead Engineer

Lenovo and Careers
Chicago, IL Full Time
POSTED ON 12/26/2025
AVAILABLE BEFORE 2/25/2026

General Information

Req #
WD00093035
Career Area:
Artificial Intelligence
Country/Region:
United States of America
State:
Illinois
City:
Chicago
Date:
Sunday, December 21, 2025
Working Time:
Full-time
Additional Locations:
  • United States of America - Illinois - Chicago

Why Work at Lenovo

We are Lenovo. We do what we say. We own what we do. We WOW our customers.

Lenovo is a US$69 billion revenue global technology powerhouse, ranked #196 in the Fortune Global 500, and serving millions of customers every day in 180 markets. Focused on a bold vision to deliver Smarter Technology for All, Lenovo has built on its success as the world’s largest PC company with a full-stack portfolio of AI-enabled, AI-ready, and AI-optimized devices (PCs, workstations, smartphones, tablets), infrastructure (server, storage, edge, high performance computing and software defined infrastructure), software, solutions, and services. Lenovo’s continued investment in world-changing innovation is building a more equitable, trustworthy, and smarter future for everyone, everywhere. Lenovo is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange under Lenovo Group Limited (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY).


This transformation together with Lenovo’s world-changing innovation is building a more inclusive, trustworthy, and smarter future for everyone, everywhere. To find out more visit www.lenovo.com, and read about the latest news via our StoryHub.

Description and Requirements

About Our Team

On-device AI is the future—enabling real-time, private, and always-available intelligence. You'll push the boundaries of what's possible on mobile hardware, delivering AI experiences that run locally with low latency and all-day battery life. Your optimizations directly enable breakthrough product features.

Lenovo is hiring for a Model Optimization Lead Engineer to lead optimization and deployment of large models for edge devices. You will master technologies, such as, Quantization frameworks (TensorRT, ONNX Runtime), edge AI runtimes (ExecuTorch, llama.cpp), NPU SDKs (Qualcomm QNN, Apple Core ML), model compression libraries, profiling tools (NVIDIA Nsight, Snapdragon Profiler)


Location:
Chicago, IL,

Hybrid (3 days on-site, 2 days remote)


What You'll Do

  • Lead optimization and deployment of large models (LLMs, VLMs, diffusion) for edge devices using quantization (INT4/INT8), pruning, knowledge distillation, and LoRA.
  • Partner with silicon teams to optimize model execution on heterogeneous hardware: NPUs (Qualcomm Hexagon, Google Edge TPU), GPUs, and CPUs.
  • Implement and benchmark deployment frameworks: TensorRT-LLM, ONNX Runtime, ExecuTorch, llama.cpp, MLC-LLM.
  • Drive hardware-software co-design, influencing sensor and silicon roadmaps to enable efficient AI inference.
  • Build ML ops infrastructure: model serving, A/B testing, performance monitoring, continuous optimization.
  • Lead a team of optimization engineers and collaborate with ML researchers, hardware teams, and product managers.
  • Stay at the forefront of on-device AI: sub-10B parameter models, mixed precision, sparse attention, federated learning.


Basic Qualifications

  • 7 years in ML engineering or systems, with 3 years focused on model optimization and deployment.
  • Bachelor's Degree in Engineering or Computer Science.
  • Deep expertise in model compression: quantization (QAT, PTQ), pruning, distillation, low-rank adaptation.
  • Hands-on experience with mobile/edge AI frameworks (TensorRT, ONNX, TFLite, CoreML).

Preferred Qualifications
  • Understanding of hardware architectures: NPU/GPU/CPU characteristics, SIMD operations, memory hierarchies.
  • Proficiency in C /Python and performance optimization (CUDA, OpenCL, or NPU programming).
  • Track record of shipping ML models to production on resource-constrained devices.


The base salary budgeted range for this position is $180K-$220K. Individuals may also be considered for bonus and/or commission.


Lenovo’s various benefits can be found on www.lenovobenefits.com


We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any federal, state, or local protected class.
Additional Locations:
  • United States of America - Illinois - Chicago

Salary : $180,000 - $220,000

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