# Software Engineer (C++ Systems) at Thunder Compute

Software Engineer (C++ Systems) at Thunder Compute in San Francisco. On-site, full-time, paying $250k–$325k. Posted July 21, 2026.

- Company: Thunder Compute
- Location: San Francisco
- Workplace: On-site
- Job type: Full-time
- Pay: $250k–$325k
- Posted: 2026-07-21
- Apply: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/thundercompute/2efae53b-817c-43e7-9da3-72694813f608/application
- Source: https://jobmagic.ai/jobs/software-engineer-c-systems-thunder-compute-k5yddk

## Description

### 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.