AI Lead Architect - Silicon Design Execution

Altera Corporation; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 206,000 - 303,000; Full time

Job summary

Altera Corporation in California seeks an AI Lead in HW Engineering to define and drive the company's AI strategy for chip design and to lead deployment into design and verification workflows. This senior, individual-contributor role emphasizes deep hardware/EDA credibility, change-agent influence, and hands-on tooling development across design, verification, and implementation.

You will partner with CAD, IT, and multiple engineering teams to measure impact, govern AI adoption, and mentor peers

Qualifications

• 12+ years of hands-on experience in semiconductor/hardware design, verification, or implementation.
• Demonstrated experience applying AI/ML techniques to real engineering workflows, ideally within chip design, verification, or physical implementation.
• Proficiency in Python and modern ML/LLM tooling; hands-on in at least one: LLM fine-tuning, retrieval-augmented generation, agentic frameworks, or ML for EDA data.
• Experience leading technical initiatives and driving adoption without direct management authority.
• Ability to engage senior customers and navigate challenging technical conversations with credibility and diplomacy.
• Formal education or equivalent practical experience in EE/CE/CS.

Responsibilities

• Define AI strategy for AI/ML in hardware design, verification, and implementation.
• Lead end-to-end deployment of AI-driven tools into production design workflows.
• Build and own AI tooling stack for design data, script generation, and triage.
• Establish evaluation, versioning, monitoring, and retirement of AI tools.
• Partner with CAD and IT to ensure data availability and governance for ML use.
• Collaborate with design, verification, DFT, and EDA teams to implement AI-based solutions.
• Act as a change agent to drive adoption and mitigate disruption from new workflows.
• Evaluate AI technologies and vendors and provide build-vs-buy guidance.
• Communicate progress and impact to senior stakeholders and customers.

Skills

AI/ML techniques

Python

LLM tooling

Leadership without authority

EDA design flows

Strong communication

Education

BS/MS/PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science or related field

Tools

EDA tools

Job description

**About Altera**Altera designs and delivers FPGA and adaptive computing solutions that help customers build differentiated, intelligent systems. This role is part of Altera's effort to modernize and accelerate its hardware design organization through the strategic application of AI. **Mission**Lead the AI transformation of hardware design across the organization. **Role Summary**Altera is seeking an **AI Lead in HW Engineering** to define and drive the company's AI strategy for chip design and to lead its deployment into design, verification, and implementation workflows. This is a senior, individual-contributor role intended for an engineer with deep hardware/EDA credibility who can act as a change agent — identifying where AI and machine learning can meaningfully accelerate and improve hardware development, building the case for adoption, and partnering with engineering teams across the organization to make it happen. The role carries no direct reports; impact comes through technical leadership, influence, and cross-team partnership rather than management authority. **Key Responsibilities*** **Define AI strategy:** Develop and own a coherent strategy for how AI/ML is applied across hardware design, verification, and implementation, aligned to business priorities and engineering roadmaps.* **Drive deployment, not just proof-of-concept:** Lead the end-to-end path from identifying opportunities to piloting, validating, and deploying AI-driven tools and methods into production design, verification, and implementation flows.* **Build and own the AI tooling stack:** Specify, prototype, and productionize the tooling engineers actually use — retrieval over design collateral, specs, and historical debug data; agentic assistants for flow debug, script generation, and triage; and predictive models for quality-of-results and turnaround time — together with the evaluation harnesses that prove they work.* **Own evaluation and operational discipline:** Establish how AI tools are benchmarked, versioned, monitored, and retired, so adoption decisions rest on measured accuracy and engineer hours saved rather than demo quality.* **Build the data foundation:** Partner with CAD and IT to make design, verification, and signoff telemetry usable for ML — access, provenance, quality, and the IP-protection constraints that govern what can be used where.* **Partner across the organization:** Work directly with design, verification, DFT, implementation, and EDA tooling teams to understand workflow pain points and co-develop AI-based solutions that fit real engineering practice.* **Act as a change agent:** Build organizational buy-in for new AI-enabled workflows, addressing skepticism, workflow disruption, and adoption risk with credibility earned through hands-on hardware/EDA expertise.* **Evaluate technology and vendors:** Assess emerging AI/ML techniques, internal tooling, and third-party/EDA-vendor AI offerings for applicability to Altera's design flows, and make build-vs-buy recommendations.* **Engage senior stakeholders and customers:** Represent Altera's AI-in-design strategy and progress to senior internal stakeholders and, where relevant, customers and partners — building rapport and trust in technical conversations that carry real ambiguity and challenge.* **Measure and communicate impact:** Define success metrics for AI initiatives (e.g., turnaround-time reduction, quality-of-results improvement, engineer productivity) and report progress to leadership.* **Mentor and uplift:** Elevate AI/ML fluency across engineering teams through coaching, documentation, and hands-on collaboration, without formal management responsibility. **What Makes This Role Unique**This role sits at the intersection of AI leadership and deep hardware/EDA domain expertise — a combination that is rare and highly valued. The AI Lead is expected to function as a change agent within a large, complex engineering organization: someone who can move fluidly between design, verification, and implementation teams, translate between AI capability and hardware engineering reality, and build genuine partnership rather than impose top-down mandates. Success depends as much on relationship-building and influence as it does on technical depth. **Key Competencies*** Technical credibility in hardware design and AI/ML — able to earn trust from engineering teams and speak authoritatively on both domains.* Influence without authority — able to drive change and adoption across teams without formal reporting lines.* Executive presence and diplomacy — comfortable navigating high-stakes, ambiguous, or contentious technical discussions with senior stakeholders and customers.* Strategic thinking — able to translate a broad AI opportunity space into a focused, prioritized roadmap.* Collaboration and partnership — builds genuine cross-functional relationships rather than working in isolation. **Salary Range**The pay range below is for Bay Area California only. Actual salary may vary based on a number of factors including job location, job-related knowledge, skills, experiences, trainings, etc. We also offer incentive opportunities that reward employees based on individual and company performance. **$206,400 - $303,250 USD**We use artificial intelligence to screen, assess, or select applicants for the position. Applicants must be eligible for any required U.S. export authorizations. #LI-MD1### ## **Qualifications:****Minimum Qualifications*** 12+ years of hands-on experience in semiconductor/hardware design, verification, or implementation, with deep familiarity with EDA tools and flows.* Demonstrated experience applying AI/ML techniques to real engineering workflows, ideally within chip design, verification, or physical implementation.* Working proficiency in Python and modern ML/LLM tooling, with hands-on experience in at least one of: LLM fine-tuning or post-training; retrieval-augmented generation over technical corpora; agentic frameworks and tool use; or classical ML applied to EDA data (ML-guided placement/routing, predictive timing/power, verification coverage optimization).* Track record of leading technical initiatives and driving adoption of new methodologies across engineering teams without direct management authority.* Demonstrated ability to engage senior customers, build rapport, and navigate challenging technical conversations with credibility, diplomacy, and influence.* Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present strategy and progress to senior leadership.* BS/MS/PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.