From AMD to Rivos: Jack Wolfard’s Search for a Fast-Paced Tech Experience
Sometimes, the best opportunities are the ones you never planned for. Jack Wolfard joined Rivos in January 2023 with a background in Systems but just two months in, found himself building the AI software stack that is helping power Rivos’ chips.
Jack works on Systems for AI, ensuring that AI models can run effectively and efficiently on Rivos’ hardware. Initially, his work involved integrating PyTorch and enabling basic functionality. Over time, his focus has shifted to performance optimization, fine-tuning how models interact with hardware to maximize speed and capability. The goal is to give customers a seamless experience with familiar tools and also deliver a complete, performant software stack alongside the hardware. “We want to meet customers where they are,” Jack says.
Prior to joining Rivos, Jack was a Graduate Teaching Assistant for operating systems at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he completed both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in May 2022. He first heard about Rivos through one of his students and later recommended Rivos to his roommate, who ended up joining. Jack himself took a pre-sales engineering role at AMD, working on AI performance with existing customer workloads.
“I moved all the way to California because I wanted to have an in-person, intensive experience where I could learn alongside experienced engineers,” he explained. While he appreciated the technical work during his few months at AMD, he quickly realized that the distributed nature of a larger company didn’t align with the fast-paced experience he was seeking. In a full-circle moment, his roommate encouraged Jack to reconsider Rivos.
At Rivos, Jack found exactly what he was looking for: a fast-moving team made up of both startup veterans and first-timers, all diving into new territory together. “Since we’re all going through this intense process of learning something new to all of us, we’re getting better together,” he said. “We all have a shared vision that we’re working towards, and we don’t let our individual specialities or desires get in the way of the team achieving our goal.”
Outside of work, Jack makes time for fun and community. He attends a monthly board game night hosted by a college friend and enjoys spending time outdoors, whether it be skiing in the winter or camping in the summer.
Looking ahead, Jack hopes to bring innovation back home to Oklahoma, where access to cutting-edge technology is limited. Whether through founding a startup or helping new industries take root, he wants to give back to his community and create opportunities that didn’t exist when he was growing up.