AI Methodology Design/CAD Engineer

Apple, Inc.; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 125,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple, Inc. in Austin, TX is seeking a VLSI design or CAD engineer who will apply AI to chip design across RTL, front end, CAD flows and EDA tools. You will work end-to-end with design teams to bring AI-driven improvements to the chip design process.

The role requires a BS degree and 3+ years in VLSI/CAD, with strong Python and experience using AI tools for engineering tasks. Familiarity with EDA tools and model-tuning experience is a plus.

Qualifications

• BS degree and 3+ years of relevant industry experience.
• Experience using AI tools in engineering work.
• Experience in VLSI design, CAD tools or CAD flows.
• Experience in Python programming.

Responsibilities

• Partner with design teams and CAD flow owners to understand design challenges and where AI can help.
• Contribute to evaluation data, quality metrics, and run model evaluations to identify failures.
• Tune AI agents, prompts, tools, agent skills and model choices.
• Develop CAD tools and flows that let AI agents work with design data and EDA tools.
• Evaluate AI tools from EDA vendors alongside in-house solutions.
• Enable the organization to leverage AI capabilities to drive chip delivery efficiency.

Skills

Python programming

AI tools usage

VLSI design

Education

BS degree in Electrical Engineering or related

Tools

EDA tools

MCP servers

AI agent tooling

Job description

Do you love creating elegant solutions to highly complex challenges? Do you intrinsically see the importance in every detail? As part of our Silicon Technologies group, you'll help design and manufacture our next-generation, high-performance, power-efficient processor, system-on-chip (SoC). You'll ensure Apple products and services can seamlessly and efficiently handle the tasks that make them beloved by millions. Joining this group means you'll be responsible for crafting and building the technology that fuels Apple's devices. Together, you and your team will enable our customers to do all the things they love with their devices.

As part of the Hardware Technology CAD team, you'll help bring AI methodology to chip design. You will work end to end with design teams and CAD flow owners on complex design and CAD challenges, in areas such as custom and analog design, RTL and front end, design verification, physical design, timing, extraction and signoff. You will build and evaluate AI solutions for these challenges, with a focus on the quality of their results. We are looking for a VLSI design or CAD engineer who is passionate about applying AI to chip design.

Description

In this highly visible role, your primary responsibilities will include:

• Partnering with design teams and CAD flow owners across multiple projects to understand complex design challenges and where AI can help
• Contributing to evaluation data and quality metrics, and running evaluations across models to find where an agent fails
• Tuning AI agents, including their prompts, tools, agent skills and choice of model
• Developing CAD tools and flows that let AI agents work with design data and EDA tools
• Evaluating AI tools from EDA vendors alongside in-house solutions
• Enabling the organization to leverage AI capabilities and drive efficiency in chip delivery

Minimum Qualifications

• Minimum requirement of BS and 3+ years of relevant industry experience
• Experience using AI tools, such as AI coding assistants, in engineering work
• Experience in VLSI design, CAD tools or CAD flows
• Experience in Python programming

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building LLM applications or tool-using AI agents, including Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers
• Experience evaluating or tuning AI systems, such as agent performance or output quality
• Experience applying machine learning to design data, such as predicting timing or power
• Understanding of the chip design flow, from spec to tapeout
• Hands-on knowledge of industry-standard EDA tools for simulation, synthesis, place and route, extraction, timing or physical verification
• Experience developing CAD tools, CAD flows or design methodology
• Experience writing testbenches, regression tests or signoff checks