Senior LLVM/Xtensa Compiler Engineer

Cadence Design Systems; Cork; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private Medical and Dental plans

Group Personal Pension Plan

Cycle to work scheme and gym subsidy

25 days holiday per year

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Job summary

Cadence, a leader in electronic design, seeks a Lead Software Engineer to advance LLVM-based compilers for Xtensa processors in Cork, Ireland or Belo Horizonte, Brazil. You will work on code generation, optimisations, and architecture enablement, collaborating closely with hardware teams to push performance.

You’ll mentor junior engineers, tackle real-world workloads across AI, DSP and vision, and contribute to production-grade toolchains used by leading semiconductor and systems companies.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Typically 4+ years of experience in compiler development or low‑level systems software (academic or industry experience considered).
• Strong C/C++ programming skills with solid debugging and problem-solving expertise.
• Good understanding of compiler internals (LLVM, GCC, or similar frameworks).
• Strong foundation in computer architecture and performance optimisation.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement compiler optimisations and features for Xtensa processors.
• Drive improvements in code generation, performance tuning, and architecture enablement across the toolchain.
• Partner closely with hardware and architecture teams on new ISA features and capabilities.
• Analyse and optimise real‑world workloads, including AI, DSP, and vision use cases.
• Provide technical mentorship to junior engineers and contribute to the team’s technical direction and best practices.

Skills

C/C++ programming

Compiler internals

Computer architecture

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in CS/EE

Tools

LLVM

GCC

Job description

Cadence, a leader in electronic design, seeks a Lead Software Engineer to advance LLVM-based compilers for Xtensa processors in Cork, Ireland or Belo Horizonte, Brazil. You will work on code generation, optimisations, and architecture enablement, collaborating closely with hardware teams to push performance.

You’ll mentor junior engineers, tackle real-world workloads across AI, DSP and vision, and contribute to production-grade toolchains used by leading semiconductor and systems companies.