CPU Performance Modelling Engineer - Architecture Insights

European Tech Recruit; Cambridge; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

European Tech Recruit in Cambridge is seeking an experienced Performance Modelling Engineer to join a CPU Architecture team working on next‑generation processor technologies. You will build and refine performance models and contribute to data-driven design decisions.

The role involves developing cycle-accurate and statistical simulators, analysing power and performance, and collaborating with CPU architects and software engineers to optimise microarchitectures.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or a related discipline.
• 4+ years of relevant industry experience.
• Hands-on experience in CPU performance modelling and microarchitecture analysis.
• Familiarity with cycle-accurate, cycle-approximate or functional simulators.
• Understanding of CPU pipelines and common architectural performance metrics.
• Working knowledge of Python for scripting and data analysis.
• Strong analytical, communication and collaboration skills.
• Experience with CPU power models and cache-system models.
• Strong software engineering background covering design, coding, testing and debugging.
• Knowledge of Arm architectures such as Armv8-A or Armv9-A.
• Experience with microarchitecture performance counters.
• Hardware/software co-optimisation experience.
• Exposure to RTL or SystemC simulation.
• Broader system architecture or system software knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement and improve performance models for CPU microarchitectures.
• Maintain and develop cycle-accurate, trace-driven and statistical simulation environments.
• Analyse the performance and power implications of proposed CPU features.
• Conduct architectural trade-off and cost-benefit analysis.
• Develop methodologies and automated workflows for performance analysis.
• Create visualisations and analytical tools to identify CPU performance bottlenecks.
• Collaborate with CPU architects, software engineers and performance modelling specialists.

Skills

CPU performance modelling

Microarchitecture analysis

Cycle-accurate simulators

Arm architectures (Armv8-A/Armv9-A)

Python scripting

Data analysis

Collaboration & communication

Hardware/software co-optimisation

RTL / SystemC exposure

CPU power models / cache models

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering

Tools

SystemC

CPU simulators

Job description

European Tech Recruit in Cambridge is seeking an experienced Performance Modelling Engineer to join a CPU Architecture team working on next‑generation processor technologies. You will build and refine performance models and contribute to data-driven design decisions.

The role involves developing cycle-accurate and statistical simulators, analysing power and performance, and collaborating with CPU architects and software engineers to optimise microarchitectures.