AI Methodology Design/CAD Engineer

Apple Inc.; Cupertino (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple Inc. is seeking a VLSI design or CAD engineer to bring AI capabilities to chip design within the Silicon Technologies group. You will partner with design teams and CAD flow owners to tackle complex design challenges, develop AI-enabled CAD tools, and evaluate tools from EDA vendors and in-house solutions.

The role emphasizes end-to-end AI integration in the design flow. Minimum qualifications include a BS and 3+ years of experience, with proficiency in Python and experience with VLSI CAD

Qualifications

• BS in a relevant field and 3+ years of 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.

Responsibilities

• Partner with design teams and CAD flow owners to understand complex design challenges and identify AI opportunities.
• Contribute to evaluation data and quality metrics; run model evaluations to identify agent failures.
• Tune AI agents, prompts, tools, and model selection for design tasks.
• Develop CAD tools and flows enabling AI agents to work with design data and EDA tools.
• Evaluate AI tools from EDA vendors and in-house solutions for chip design tasks.
• Help the organization leverage AI capabilities to improve chip delivery efficiency.

Skills

Python programming

AI tools in engineering

VLSI CAD tools/flows

Education

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field

Tools

EDA tools

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 helpContributing to evaluation data and quality metrics, and running evaluations across models to find where an agent failsTuning AI agents, including their prompts, tools, agent skills and choice of modelDeveloping CAD tools and flows that let AI agents work with design data and EDA toolsEvaluating AI tools from EDA vendors alongside in-house solutionsEnabling 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 writing testbenches, regression tests or signoff checks

Apple is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. We seek to promote equal opportunity for all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, Veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. Learn more about your EEO rights as an applicant

At Apple, we believe accessibility is a fundamental human right. You’ll find that idea reflected in everything here in our culture, our benefits and our digital tools. By welcoming as many perspectives as possible, we help you build a career where you feel like you belong. Learn about accessibility in Apple’s workplace Learn about reasonable accommodations for job applicants

Apple accepts applications to this posting on an ongoing basis.