Mobile CPU Architect: Energy-Efficient OOO Design

Huawei; Cambridge; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Huawei UK Research and Development in Cambridge seeks a highly skilled CPU researcher to advance mobile processor architectures. You will innovate out-of-order techniques, optimise front-end and back-end paths, and build cycle-accurate models to compare design trade-offs. Collaboration with academic partners will be key.

A PhD or Masters plus strong C/C++ and assembly skills are required. This role focuses on energy-efficient, high IPC mobile CPUs, with opportunities to influence real-world

Qualifications

• Master/PhD in CS/Engineering/Physics or related field.
• Strong knowledge of advanced computer architectures and compiler design principles.
• Deep understanding of speculative execution, branch prediction, and OOO execution.
• Proficient in C/C++, Python and assembly (Arm64/RISC-V) and scripting languages.
• Experience with cycle-accurate microarchitecture simulation and performance modeling.
• Understanding of instruction scheduling, register allocation and code generation.
• Independent, highly-motivated with a strong desire to learn.

Responsibilities

• Research and develop novel out-of-order execution techniques to improve IPC and energy efficiency of mobile CPUs.
• Analyse and optimise front-end pipeline stages including branch prediction, fetch and decode.
• Investigate bottlenecks in the out-of-order backend: issue queues, register renaming, ROB, and execution units.
• Develop and maintain cycle-accurate micro-architectural simulation models (e.g. gem5) for evaluating OOO trade-offs.
• Propose micro-architectural enhancements targeting performance-per-watt for mobile workloads.
• Characterise workloads and perform microarchitectural profiling using hardware counters and simulations.
• Evaluate and integrate state-of-the-art research into practical CPU design proposals.

Skills

Advanced computer architectures

Superscalar processor design

Branch prediction

Out-of-order execution

C/C++ programming

Python

Arm64/RISC-V assembly

Scripting languages

Cycle-accurate simulation

Performance modeling

Instruction scheduling

Register allocation

Code generation

LLVM/GCC knowledge

OS kernel concepts

Education

Master/PhD in Computer Science/Engineering/Physics

Tools

gem5

Sniper

ChampSim

LLVM backend

GCC

Custom ISA extension

OS kernel tooling

Job description

Huawei UK Research and Development in Cambridge seeks a highly skilled CPU researcher to advance mobile processor architectures. You will innovate out-of-order techniques, optimise front-end and back-end paths, and build cycle-accurate models to compare design trade-offs. Collaboration with academic partners will be key.

A PhD or Masters plus strong C/C++ and assembly skills are required. This role focuses on energy-efficient, high IPC mobile CPUs, with opportunities to influence real-world