About the role:We are looking for an experienced and highly motivated Lead SoC Architect to lead the architecture definition and technical direction for next-generation semiconductor products. The ideal candidate will have strong expertise in complex SoC architecture development, performance modeling, subsystem integration, and cross-functional collaboration across hardware, software, and system teams.
This role involves defining scalable and high-performance architectures for advanced compute platforms including AI, GPU, multimedia, networking, RISC-V or datacenter-class SoCs. This is a tech lead role and requires on-site presence in our Sunnyvale office.
The ideal candidate must be willing to be an individual contributor while leading others. This role is on-site and requires someone to be local to the Bay Area.
What you'll do:- Define top-level SoC architecture and subsystem partitioning for complex semiconductor products.
- Drive architecture tradeoff analysis for performance, power, area, bandwidth, latency, and scalability.
- Develop and review system architecture specifications, interface definitions, and microarchitecture requirements.
- Collaborate with RTL, verification, physical design, firmware, software, and system teams throughout the development cycle.
- Lead performance modeling, workload analysis, and bottleneck identification using C/C++/SystemC or similar modeling environments.
- Define memory hierarchy, NoC/interconnect strategy, coherency architecture, and cache structures.
- Evaluate and integrate third-party IPs including CPU, GPU, NPU, PCIe, DDR/LPDDR, Ethernet, multimedia, and security subsystems.
- Work closely with verification teams to define architectural test plans and validation strategies.
- Support silicon bring-up, debug, performance tuning, and post-silicon optimization.
- Contribute to long-term technology and product roadmap planning.
Required Qualifications:- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field.
- 10+ years of experience in SoC architecture, ASIC development, or complex semiconductor system design.
- Strong understanding of modern SoC architectures and subsystem integration.
- Experience with one or more of the following:
- CPU/GPU/NPU architectures
- NoC/interconnect architectures
- Cache coherency protocols (CHI/ACE/CXL)
- High-speed interfaces (PCIe, UCIe, Ethernet)
- Memory systems (DDR5, LPDDR5X, HBM)
- Power/performance optimization
- Strong knowledge of RTL development and verification methodologies.
- Experience with architecture modeling and performance analysis tools.
- Familiarity with firmware/software interaction in complex SoC systems.
- Excellent problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills.
Preferred Qualifications- Experience with AI accelerator, GPU, networking, RISC-V or datacenter SoC architectures.
- Experience with chiplet-based or multi-die architectures.
- Familiarity with advanced process technologies and package integration.
- Experience with emulation, FPGA prototyping, and system-level validation.
- Knowledge of Linux drivers, runtime software, or system software architecture.
- Prior technical leadership experience across cross-functional engineering teams.
Technical Skills - System architecture definition
- Performance analysis and simulation
- RTL and microarchitecture understanding
- Memory subsystem architecture
- Silicon bring-up and debugging
Compensation Range: $200,000-$250,000 per year (California). This range represents the anticipated base pay for this role; the final offer may vary based on qualifications, experience, and location.
Benefits:- Medical, Dental, & Vision - 100% covered premiums
- Equity - Stock Options
- 401(k) match
- WFH Hardware
