Chip & Silicon Engineer
Chip & Silicon Engineers at AI companies work across the chip-design lifecycle for AI accelerators and supporting silicon—from RTL and microarchitecture through physical design, verification, and post-silicon validation. The role spans front-end design (architecting blocks, writing RTL, running simulation), physical design (synthesis, place-and-route, timing closure, power-performance-area optimization), and post-silicon work (bring-up, characterization, debug across hardware, firmware, and software layers). Specialization within this slug varies—some engineers focus narrowly on one phase of the pipeline, others coordinate across phases—but the population spans the full chain rather than concentrating on any single stage. These engineers typically sit within silicon, hardware, or platform engineering organizations at chip-focused AI companies, collaborating closely with verification, software, and systems teams to deliver production silicon.
Skills
What companies are looking for in this role.
Optimizing silicon designs for power, performance, area, and cost tradeoffs
Performing physical design tasks including synthesis, place and route, and timing closure
Conducting post-silicon validation and verification across hardware, firmware, and software domains
Performing silicon bring-up and characterization of new chips on bench platforms and evaluation boards
Developing microarchitecture and RTL to implement chip architecture specifications
Defining and executing bring-up and characterization plans for silicon devices in production systems
Debugging and resolving complex issues across silicon, firmware, and system interactions
Developing test infrastructure, scripts, and tools to validate silicon functionality
Executing block-level and full-chip physical verification methodology
Leading system validation strategy and execution for blade and rack-level platforms
Designing and architecting system-on-chip solutions from concept through production delivery
Building and maintaining automated test infrastructure and lab instrumentation setups
Performing automated and manual testing in laboratory and data center environments
Conducting circuit-level optimization and implementation-driven power, performance, and area optimization
Integrating intellectual property and subsystems into top-level system designs
Architecting energy-efficient machine learning accelerator compute subsystems for inference workloads
Performing hardware and software co-design to maximize performance per watt and system efficiency
Analyzing silicon data and identifying gaps between design goals and actual silicon performance
Collaborating with foundry partners to optimize process technology and design libraries
Evaluating and integrating emerging semiconductor technologies including advanced packaging and three-dimensional integration
Using artificial intelligence tools and automation to accelerate silicon design and implementation workflows
Applying machine learning techniques to silicon validation and test data analysis
Collaborating effectively across architecture, hardware, software, and systems engineering teams
Leading cross-functional teams in silicon design, verification, and validation efforts
Driving root cause analysis and issue resolution through cross-domain debugging
Translating product requirements into scalable silicon architecture solutions
Communicating technical requirements and design specifications across distributed engineering teams
Managing execution against aggressive program schedules and milestones
Mentoring and developing high-performing engineering teams in design and validation
Technology
The tools and technologies that define this role.
Open Jobs
54 open Chip & Silicon Engineer jobs across 7 companies.
Other Physical Systems roles
Engineers designing and building electronic hardware, electrical systems, power systems, and signal chains. Covers circuit design, PCB layout, power delivery, RF/antenna design, and signal integrity.
Engineers writing software that runs directly on hardware — firmware, embedded systems, RTOS, device drivers, microcontroller programming, and board support packages.
Engineers building physical robotic systems — manipulation, locomotion, motion planning, controls, perception for physical interaction, and autonomous navigation. Covers the full robotics stack from hardware integration through control software. Distinguished from Simulation Engineer (research_science) which builds virtual environments for training AI.
Technicians who install, cable, commission, and maintain hardware in data center environments. Covers structured cabling, hardware rack-and-stack, field deployment, and physical network infrastructure.
Engineers ensuring the safety of physical systems through functional safety analysis, hazard assessment, system safety engineering, and verification & validation of safety-critical systems.