Performance Benchmarking Engineer - RISC-V Workloads

Job Description We’re looking for a hands-on engineer to support benchmarking and performance analysis of real workloads running on a custom RISC-V processor, implemented in both silicon and FPGA-based environments. You’ll be responsible for executing, automating, and analyzing application-level benchmarks to help evaluate system throughput, scalability, and efficiency. Your work will directly influence hardware optimization and shape how we present performance data to external partners and customers. Responsibilities: • Run and monitor Redis, MongoDB, ElasticSearch, and other similar workloads on pre-configured systems. • Vary workload parameters (e.g. thread/core counts, memory configurations) to explore performance boundaries. • Capture and log key metrics like: • • Operations per second • Power usage • Latency • Ops/sec per watt • Compare results across configurations and flag anomalies or bottlenecks. • Automate test runs and data collection where possible. • Work with internal engineering to interpret patterns and iterate on performance hypotheses. Must-Have: • Running performance benchmarks (e.g., Redis, MongoDB, ElasticSearch) • Linux system experience (Fedora 29 or similar) • Scripting for automation (Python, Bash, or Go) • Basic data analysis (e.g., aggregating logs, calculating throughput, visualizing metrics) • Experience working in CI/CD environments or remote test infrastructure Nice-to-Have: • Redis/Mongo/Elastic performance tuning • Experience collecting metrics like ops/sec, latency, power usage • Familiarity with performance visualization tools (Grafana, Datadog, or similar) • Comfort with custom or constrained environments (e.g., no package managers, legacy OS versions) Bonus: • Exposure to FPGA-based platforms like Zebu, FireSim, or Veloce • Understanding of many-thread architectures or massively parallel hardware • Prior experience benchmarking on non-x86 or pre-silicon systems • Familiarity with profiling tools (e.g., perf, top, htop, or low-level instrumentation) • Experience working with distributed NoSQL systems under load About the Hardware Platform: You’ll be benchmarking real workloads on a custom RISC-V processor, built in-house and currently deployed in both FPGA and silicon environments. The architecture includes: • High thread count per core • A design optimized for efficiency per watt, not peak single-threaded performance • Unique memory behavior and thread scheduling characteristics that affect how workloads scale You won’t need to debug RTL or low-level drivers, but understanding how workload behavior maps to threads, memory traffic, and performance bottlenecks will be key to interpreting results and guiding follow-up tests. This is a short-term contract role with room to extend or expand scope if things go well.