Demo

Research Scientist / Engineer – Performance Optimization

Luma
Palo Alto, CA Full Time
POSTED ON 5/20/2026
AVAILABLE BEFORE 6/17/2026
About Luma AI

Luma's mission is to build multimodal AI to expand human imagination and capabilities. We believe that multimodality is critical for intelligence. To go beyond language models and build more aware, capable and useful systems, the next step function change will come from vision. So we are working on training and scaling up multimodal foundation models for systems that can see and understand, show and explain, and eventually interact with our world to effect change.

About The Role

The Performance Optimization team at Luma is dedicated to maximizing the efficiency and performance of our AI models. Working closely with both research and engineering teams, this group ensures that our cutting-edge multimodal models can be trained efficiently and deployed at scale while maintaining the highest quality standards.

Responsibilities

  • Profile and optimize GPU/CPU/Accelerator code for maximum utilization and minimal latency
  • Write high-performance PyTorch, Triton, CUDA, deferring to custom PyTorch operations if necessary
  • Develop fused kernels and leverage tensor cores and modern hardware features for optimal hardware utilization on different hardware platforms
  • Optimize model architectures and implementations for distributed multi-node production deployment
  • Build performance monitoring and analysis tools and automation
  • Research and implement cutting-edge optimization techniques for transformer model

Experience

  • Expert-level proficiency in Triton/CUDA programming and GPU optimization
  • Strong PyTorch skills
  • Experience with PyTorch kernel development and custom operations
  • Proficiency with profiling tools (NVIDIA Nsight, torch profiler, custom tooling)
  • Deep understanding of transformer architectures and attention mechanisms
  • (Preferred) Experience with compilers/exporters such as torch.compile, TensorRT, ONNX, XLA
  • (Preferred) Experience optimizing inference workloads for latency and throughput
  • (Preferred) Experience with Triton compiler and kernel fusion techniques
  • (Preferred) Knowledge of warp-level intrinsics and advanced CUDA optimization

Your applications are reviewed by real people.

Salary.com Estimation for Research Scientist / Engineer – Performance Optimization in Palo Alto, CA
$101,213 to $128,283
If your compensation planning software is too rigid to deploy winning incentive strategies, it’s time to find an adaptable solution. Compensation Planning
Enhance your organization's compensation strategy with salary data sets that HR and team managers can use to pay your staff right. Surveys & Data Sets

What is the career path for a Research Scientist / Engineer – Performance Optimization?

Sign up to receive alerts about other jobs on the Research Scientist / Engineer – Performance Optimization career path by checking the boxes next to the positions that interest you.
Income Estimation: 
$100,407 - $125,193
Income Estimation: 
$120,989 - $162,093
Income Estimation: 
$74,806 - $91,633
Income Estimation: 
$71,928 - $87,026
Income Estimation: 
$145,337 - $174,569
Income Estimation: 
$82,813 - $108,410
Income Estimation: 
$120,989 - $162,093
Income Estimation: 
$74,806 - $91,633
Income Estimation: 
$71,928 - $87,026
Income Estimation: 
$145,337 - $174,569
Employees: Get a Salary Increase
View Core, Job Family, and Industry Job Skills and Competency Data for more than 15,000 Job Titles Skills Library

Job openings at Luma

  • Luma York, NY
  • Where You Come In Luma is hiring founding Enterprise Account Executives to help define our early go-to-market motion. This is a traditional sales role. The... more
  • 3 Days Ago

  • Luma Palo Alto, CA
  • About Luma AI Luma's mission is to build multimodal AI to expand human imagination and capabilities. We believe that multimodality is critical for intellig... more
  • 10 Days Ago

  • Luma Palo Alto, CA
  • About Luma Luma’s mission is to build unified general intelligence that can generate, understand, and operate in the physical world. We believe that multim... more
  • 10 Days Ago

  • Luma Palo Alto, CA
  • About Luma AI Luma's mission is to build multimodal AI to expand human imagination and capabilities. We believe that multimodality is critical for intellig... more
  • 13 Days Ago


Not the job you're looking for? Here are some other Research Scientist / Engineer – Performance Optimization jobs in the Palo Alto, CA area that may be a better fit.

  • Bright Vision Technologies Fremont, CA
  • Bright Vision Technologies is a forward-thinking software development company dedicated to building innovative solutions that help businesses automate and ... more
  • 20 Days Ago

  • Aurora Innovation, Inc. Mountain View, CA
  • Who we are Aurora's mission is to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly. The Aurora Driver will create a new era in ... more
  • 1 Day Ago

AI Assistant is available now!

Feel free to start your new journey!