AI Engineer

Altera Corporation

$133K — $192K *
Information Technology
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Master's (or exceptional Bachelor's) in CS, EE, or related field
  • 3+ years of experience (internships, research, or industry)
  • Strong coding skills in Python (C++ is a plus)
  • Hands-on experience with AI/ML projects or backend/distributed systems
  • Solid fundamentals in data structures and system design basics
  • Proven track record of building non-trivial projects, open-source contributions, or research prototypes

Responsibilities

  • Develop LLM-powered agents that use tools, APIs, and data to complete complex tasks
  • Implement RAG pipelines for large-scale knowledge integration
  • Ship end-to-end systems from data ingestion to reasoning and action
  • Design multi-step reasoning workflows beyond basic model usage
  • Evaluate and improve model performance regarding accuracy, latency, and cost
  • Collaborate with FPGA/ASIC teams on hardware-aware AI design
  • Contribute to internal AI platforms used across teams

Benefits

  • Fast growth opportunities with direct interaction with senior architects
  • Clear path toward Senior Engineer and Architect roles
  • High learning density with exposure to modern AI systems and hardware acceleration
  • Real ownership of production systems that impact engineering workflows
Full Job Description
Job Details:

Job Description:

AI Engineer - Agentic AI Systems

This role is designed for high-potential engineers early in their careers who want to:
  • work on cutting-edge AI (LLMs + agents + RAG)
  • gain exposure to hardware-software co-design
  • and grow quickly into technical leaders in AI systems


What You'll Work On

Build Real Agentic AI Systems
  • Develop LLM-powered agents that use tools, APIs, and data to complete complex tasks
  • Implement RAG pipelines for large-scale knowledge integration
  • Ship end-to-end systems from data ingestion → reasoning → action


Go Beyond "Model Usage"
  • Design multi-step reasoning workflows, not just prompt calls
  • Evaluate and improve model behavior (accuracy, latency, cost)
  • Work with both open-source and frontier models


AI Meets Hardware (Differentiator)
  • Collaborate with FPGA/ASIC teams on hardware-aware AI design
  • Learn how AI systems are optimized across CPU / GPU / FPGA
  • Explore efficient inference and system-level performance tradeoffs


Build Platforms, Not Just Features
  • Develop reusable components for:
    • memory and context management
    • tool integration
    • knowledge retrieval
  • Contribute to internal AI platforms used across teams


The pay range below is for Bay Area California only. Actual salary may vary based on a number of factors including job location, job-related knowledge, skills, experiences, trainings, etc. We also offer incentive opportunities that reward employees based on individual and company performance.

$133.2K - $192.8K USD

We use artificial intelligence to screen, assess, or select applicants for the position. Applicants must be eligible for any required U.S. export authorizations.

Qualifications:

What We're Looking For

Background
  • Master's (or exceptional Bachelor's) in CS, EE, or related field
  • 3+ years experience (internships, research, or industry)


Technical Strength
  • Strong coding skills in Python (C++ is a plus)
  • Hands-on experience building:
    • AI/ML projects, OR
    • backend / distributed systems
  • Solid fundamentals in:
    • data structures
    • system design basics


Signal of Excellence (What Sets You Apart)
  • You've built something non-trivial:
    • AI project, open-source contribution, or research prototype
  • You learn new frameworks quickly and ship working systems
  • You're curious about how systems work end-to-end, not just models


Bonus Points
  • Experience with:
    • LangChain, LlamaIndex, or similar
    • vector databases (FAISS, Milvus, etc.)
  • Exposure to:
    • RAG, prompt engineering, or agent workflows
    • hardware acceleration or performance optimization


What You'll Get

Fast Growth
  • Work directly with senior architects and domain experts
  • Clear path toward Senior Engineer → Architect roles


High Learning Density
  • Exposure to both:
    • modern AI systems (LLMs, agents)
    • hardware acceleration (FPGA/ASIC)


Real Ownership
  • Build production systems-not demos
  • Your work will be used in real engineering workflows


Unique Positioning
  • Few roles combine:
    • Agentic AI systems
    • EDA / semiconductor domain
    • hardware-aware AI optimization


Job Type:
Regular

Shift:
Shift 1 (United States of America)

Primary Location:
San Jose, California, United States

Additional Locations:

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