Software Engineer, Inference

Overview

Pulse is tackling one of the most persistent challenges in data infrastructure: extracting accurate, structured information from complex documents at scale. We have a breakthrough approach to document understanding that combines intelligent schema mapping with fine-tuned extraction models where legacy OCR and other parsing tools consistently fail.

We are a small, fast-growing team of engineers in San Francisco powering Fortune 100 enterprises, YC startups, public investment firms, and growth-stage companies. We are backed by tier 1 investors and growing quickly.

What makes our tech special is our multi-stage architecture

Layout understanding with specialized component detection models

Low-latency OCR models for targeted extraction

Advanced reading-order algorithms for complex structures

Proprietary table structure recognition and parsing

Fine-tuned vision-language models for charts, tables, and figures

If you are passionate about the intersection of computer vision, NLP, and data infrastructure, your work at Pulse will directly impact customers and shape the future of document intelligence.

What we are looking for

5 days in-office at our San Francisco office

Eager to learn and adapt quickly

Prior startup or founding experience is a plus

What we are looking for

5 days in-office at our San Francisco office

Eager to learn and adapt quickly

Prior startup or founding experience is a plus

About the Role

Specialize in low-latency, high-throughput inference for OCR and multimodal models. Own profiling, batching, and autoscaling across single-tenant and multi-tenant environments.

Responsibilities

Build inference services with smart batching and caching

Optimize kernels, tokenization, and model graphs

Evaluate vLLM, TensorRT LLM, and Triton tradeoffs

Implement autoscaling and admission control with clear SLOs

Own performance dashboards and capacity planning

Requirements

3+ years in performance engineering or ML systems

Strong Python, plus C++ or CUDA exposure

Experience with GPU profiling and model serving

Nice to have

Experience reducing p95 and cost in production ML systems

Sponsorship

Sponsorship available.

Compensation and benefits

Competitive base salary plus equity, performance-based bonus, relocation assistance for Bay Area moves, daily meal stipend, medical, vision, and dental coverage.