Software Engineer (C++ Systems)

THE SHORT VERSION Thunder Compute runs a GPU cloud on systems software we built from scratch in C++. It lets us get far more out of every GPU than the rest of the market. You'll write the core C++ behind it, reporting directly to our CTO, Brian Model (ex-Citadel Securities quant dev). The team comes from Citadel Securities, Aquatic, Old Mission, and AWS. Compensation: $250–325K base, 0.1–0.3% equity, profit-sharing bonus pool (founders excluded). Visa sponsorship and relocation available. WHAT THE WORK LOOKS LIKE - Remove microseconds from latency-critical paths that cross process and machine boundaries. - Build high-performance networking and data-transfer paths. - Keep low-level runtime code correct under fork, signals, multithreading, and dynamic linking, inside workloads we don't control. - Debug production failures that span the OS, the network, and the GPU, with no repro and no playbook. - Design allocation, scheduling, failure recovery, and observability across a GPU fleet. - Take new systems research from a paper or prototype into production. It's the hardest parts of systems research and production engineering at the same time. One week you're tracing a synchronization bug across a distributed workload; the next, you're redesigning a hot path. WHO WE ARE Series A, with more than $17.5M raised from Matrix Partners, Y Combinator, and angels from CoreWeave, Microsoft, Cognition, and Anthropic. Small team, live in production with real customers, in downtown San Francisco. WHAT WE LOOK FOR - Exceptional modern C++: memory management, concurrency, performance, and systems-level abstraction design - Deep understanding of at least one of: operating systems, low-level networking, compilers, distributed systems, or computer architecture - Experience building and running performance-critical C++ in production - Strong Linux systems programming and debugging, and the ability to reason across unfamiliar layers of the stack - Ownership: you push a project from prototype to 100% done under tight deadlines, ship well-tested code without much oversight, and are happy to work directly with customers on hard production failures Nice to have: CUDA or GPU systems, high-performance networking, distributed computing, compilers, or dynamic linking. Background at a trading firm (Citadel Securities, Jane Street, etc.), a hardware or AI infra company (NVIDIA, SambaNova, etc.), or a systems research group. Competitive programming, open-source, or research that shows strong fundamentals. LOGISTICS Full-time, in person five days a week at our office in downtown San Francisco. Relocation support and visa sponsorship available. BENEFITS Profit sharing: a bonus pool paid out twice a year that grows with gross profit, plus $3.3M in near-term bonuses unlocked at gross-profit milestones, split by performance. Daily lunch, dinner when in-office, snacks, and coffee. Offsites and team events. 401(k). Health, dental, and vision insurance.