ASIC Architect

Etched; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision packages

$500 monthly credit for waiving medical benefits

Housing subsidy of $2k per month

Relocation support for moving to San Jose

Daily lunch + dinner in office

Job summary

A cutting-edge AI hardware company is seeking a talented Computer Architect to join their team in San Jose. This role focuses on developing and optimizing compute architectures for transformer workloads, with an emphasis on performance and efficiency. Ideal candidates will have a PhD and 5+ years of experience in computer architecture or ASIC design, along with strong analytical skills and proficiency in programming languages. The position offers excellent benefits including a housing subsidy and wellness programs.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in computer architecture, ASIC design, or related fields.
• Strong understanding of computer architecture fundamentals including pipelines and memory hierarchies.
• Hands-on experience designing and optimizing floating-point datapaths.

Responsibilities

• Design and analyze chip architectures optimized for AI/ML workloads.
• Contribute to power and area estimation methodologies.
• Collaborate with teams to ensure architectural feasibility.

Skills

Computer architecture fundamentals

Performance modeling

Analytical skills

Programming in Rust, C/C++, or Python

Communication skills

Education

PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field

Tools

Cycle-accurate simulation tools

Verilog/SystemVerilog

Job description

About Etched

Etched is building the world’s first AI inference system purpose-built for transformers - delivering over 10x higher performance and dramatically lower cost and latency than a B200. With Etched ASICs, you can build products that would be impossible with GPUs, like real-time video generation models and extremely deep & parallel chain-of-thought reasoning agents. Backed by hundreds of millions from top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Etched is redefining the infrastructure layer for the fastest growing industry in history.

Job Summary

We are seeking a talented Computer Architect to join our architecture team and contribute to the design of next-generation AI accelerators. This role focuses on developing and optimizing compute architectures that deliver exceptional performance and efficiency for transformer workloads. You will work on cutting-edge architectural problems and performance modeling with deep cross-functional collaboration to bring innovative chip designs from concept to silicon.

Key Responsibilities

• Microarchitecture & dataflow innovation: Design and analyze chip architectures optimized for AI/ML workloads, with focus on throughput, latency, and power efficiency

• Design next-generation silicon: Contribute to power and area estimation methodologies for early-stage, next generation architectural exploration

• Custom circuit development: Create architectural specifications and interface definitions for compute blocks and subsystems

• System-level prototyping: Collaborate with RTL, verification, physical design, and software teams to ensure architectural feasibility and ultimate optimization

• Performance optimization: Conduct architectural experiments using cycle-accurate simulators and analytical models

• Cross‑functional collaboration: Support integration efforts by providing architectural guidance and resolving design challenges

You may be a good fit if you have

• PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field

• 5+ years of experience in computer architecture, ASIC design, or related fields

• Strong understanding of computer architecture fundamentals including pipelines, memory hierarchies, and interconnects

• Experience with performance modeling and architectural simulation tools

• Hands‑on experience designing and optimizing floating‑point datapaths or arithmetic‑intensive circuits and working with advanced process nodes.

• Proficiency in Rust, C/C++, or Python for modeling and analysis

• Knowledge of modern processor microarchitecture and design tradeoffs

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with attention to detail

• Excellent communication skills and ability to work in cross-functional teams

Strong candidates may also have experience with (Nice-to-have qualifications)

• AI/ML accelerator architectures and dataflow optimization

• RTL design and verification (Verilog/SystemVerilog)

• Cycle-accurate simulation tools (gem5, SystemC, or custom simulators)

• Power and performance analysis methodologies

• ASIC design flow and physical design constraints

• Publishing or presenting at architecture conferences (ISCA, MICRO, HPCA, etc.)

• Hands-on experience with tapeout and silicon bring-up

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage

  • $500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits

• Housing subsidy of $2k per month for those living within walking distance of the office

• Relocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)

• Various wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more

• Daily lunch + dinner in our office

How we’re different

Etched believes in Bitter Lesson. We think most of the progress in the AI field has come from using more FLOPs to train and run models, and the best way to get more FLOPs is to build model-specific hardware. Larger and larger training runs encourage companies to consolidate around fewer model architectures, which creates a market for single-model ASICs.

We are a fully in-person team in San Jose (Santana Row), and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both as needed.