AI Lead/Manager
Normal Computing
Software Engineering, Data Science
New York, NY, USA
USD 250k-340k / year + Equity
Location
New York City
Employment Type
Full time
Location Type
Hybrid
Department
Engineering
Compensation
- $250K – $340K • Offers Equity
We are committed to competitive and equitable compensation based on role, skills, and experience. Salary ranges are guidelines, with final compensation varying by role, experience, and location and reviewed regularly for fairness.
Normal Computing | Incredible Opportunities
The Normal Team builds foundational software and hardware that help move technology forward - supporting the semiconductor industry, critical AI infrastructure, and the broader systems that power our world. We work as one team across New York, San Francisco, Copenhagen, Seoul, and London.
Your Role in Our Mission:
As an AI Lead / ML Engineering Manager, you will lead a team of AI/ML engineers building systems for AI-native EDA and advanced hardware workflows. This work sits at the intersection of applied ML, agents, model evaluation, software engineering, and semiconductor domain complexity.
You will be responsible for setting technical direction, managing execution, developing engineers, and staying close to the implementation details that determine whether our systems work in practice. The team is building AI systems where correctness, traceability, and reliability matter, especially when agents are operating against formal or highly structured engineering problems.
This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who has grown from strong individual contribution into technical leadership or management. You should be comfortable moving between architecture, model behavior, evaluation, implementation tradeoffs, hiring, and team development.
The strongest candidates will have built meaningful AI/ML systems in technical domains where models need to operate against real constraints. Experience with LLMs, RL, agents, ML infrastructure, optimization, model evaluation, or AI applied to hardware, EDA, circuits, or engineering workflows is especially relevant.
This direction maps well to the current internal signal at Normal, including work around auto-formalizing systems for advanced hardware, scalable AI systems, ML efficiency, and AI applied to semiconductor and circuit design workflows.
Responsibilities:
Lead and manage a team of AI/ML engineers
Set technical direction for applied AI and ML engineering work across Normal’s product and platform areas
Stay hands-on with architecture, implementation decisions, code review, debugging, evaluation, and system design
Build AI systems that can operate against structured engineering workflows, formal specifications, and objective correctness signals
Partner with product, engineering, research, and leadership to translate ambiguous goals into clear technical plans
Help define the operating rhythm, engineering standards, and execution model for the AI/ML team
Hire, mentor, and develop strong AI/ML engineers as the team scales
Identify technical risks early and guide the team toward practical, high-quality solutions
Balance model quality, system reliability, product impact, and engineering velocity
Contribute directly to critical technical work when needed, especially in early or ambiguous areas
What Makes You A Great Fit:
Direct experience across ML engineering, applied AI, AI infrastructure, production ML systems, or closely related areas
Experience as a technical lead, staff-level IC, engineering manager, or hybrid lead/manager for AI/ML engineering teams
Track record of building and shipping meaningful AI/ML systems in production or high-impact technical environments
Strong hands-on technical ability, with comfort reviewing designs, debugging systems, and contributing directly when needed
Experience working with LLMs, RL, agents, model evaluation, inference systems, optimization, or ML infrastructure
Strong judgment around architecture, model behavior, evaluation, system tradeoffs, and execution priorities
Ability to create clarity in ambiguous technical areas and help teams move quickly without losing rigor
Experience managing or mentoring engineers while maintaining close technical involvement
Experience partnering cross-functionally with product, research, infrastructure, and engineering leadership
Strong ownership mindset and ability to operate in a small, high-caliber team
Bonus Points For:
Experience applying agentic systems and AI/ML to EDA, semiconductor workflows, circuits, hardware design, verification, or other advanced engineering domains
Experience leading AI/ML work in a startup, research-heavy, or zero-to-one product environment
Experience hiring and scaling small, senior engineering teams
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
Normal Computing is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected status.
Accessibility Accommodations
Normal Computing is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please let us know at accommodations@normalcomputing.com.
Privacy Notice
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Compensation Range: $250K - $340K