Director of Silicon Engineering, AI-Native Chip Design

Octopyd; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 270,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognichip in Toronto, Canada, is seeking a Director of Silicon Engineering to scale our AI-native chip design organization. This leader will bridge deep technical expertise with strategic management to build a high-performing team capable of shipping production ASIC/SoC products.

Collaborating with Product, SW, and AI teams, you will pioneer AI-first hardware tools and define the technical roadmap to transform chip-design knowledge into actionable workflows.

Qualifications

• 20+ years of experience across architecture, RTL design, verification, and physical design stages.
• Proven experience building and leading engineering teams of 20+.
• Track record of shipping multiple production ASIC/SoC products end-to-end.
• Experience with, and exposure to, AI/ML-driven chip design workflows, tooling.
• Experience with CAD systems; experience integrating workflows with EDA tools.

Responsibilities

• Build, lead, and grow a high-performing hardware engineering team, including hiring, mentoring, and establishing management structure as the org scales
• Set the technical roadmap for translating chip-design expertise into AI-consumable knowledge bases, agent playbooks, model training data, and tool-aware workflows
• Own delivery of production-quality outcomes on schedule, partnering closely with Product, SW and AI/ML teams

Skills

Architecture and RTL design

Verification

Physical design

Leadership of 20+ engineers

AI/ML-driven chip design workflows

Tools

EDA tools

CAD systems

Job description

Director of Silicon Engineering, AI-Native Chip Design

Location: Toronto, ON, CA FULL_TIME

Salary: 270,000–300,000 CAD / year

Job Title

Director of Silicon Engineering, AI-Native Chip Design

About Cognichip

• At Cognichip, we are building AI-native tools that transform how semiconductor engineers create, verify, and optimize chips.
• Our platform combines large proprietary models, agentic workflows, domain-specific engineering intelligence, and high-performance simulation infrastructure to accelerate one of the world’s most complex engineering disciplines.

About the Role

• We are seeking a Director of Silicon Engineering to scale our AI-native chip design organization.
• This leader will bridge deep technical expertise with strategic management to build a high-performing team.
• Collaborating with Product, SW, and AI teams, you will pioneer the next generation of AI-first hardware tools.
• The ideal candidate has a proven track record of shipping production silicon and a passion for re-imagining chip design workflows through an AI lens.

Key Responsibilities

• Build, lead, and grow a high-performing hardware engineering team, including hiring, mentoring, and establishing management structure as the org scales
• Set the technical roadmap for translating chip-design expertise into AI-consumable knowledge bases, agent playbooks, model training data, and tool-aware workflows
• Own delivery of production-quality outcomes on schedule, partnering closely with Product, SW and AI/ML teams

Required Qualifications

• 20+ years of experience across architecture, RTL design, verification, and physical design stages
• Proven experience building and leading engineering teams of 20+
• Track record of shipping multiple production ASIC/SoC products end-to-end
• Experience with, and exposure to, AI/ML-driven chip design workflows, tooling

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with CAD systems; experience integrating workflows with EDA tools
• Experience developing, interacting with, or influencing, multi-disciplinary products involving HW, SW and AI

What It's Like Here

• We’re a fast-moving AI startup with a collaborative, high-trust culture.
• We value technical excellence, ownership, and the freedom to experiment.
• Our best work happens when our builders and innovators work closely together to turn ambitious ideas into category defining products.
• We operate on a hybrid schedule with four days in office, one day remote.
• If you’re excited to build cutting edge tools that empower semiconductor engineers and reshape how chips are designed, you’ll feel right at home.