Chip Architect

Voltai; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Voltai in California is seeking an experienced SoC architecture leader to define the architecture and microarchitecture for complex SoCs and IP blocks, guiding performance, power, and area trade‑offs from requirements through RTL handoff.

You will collaborate with RTL, verification, and physical design teams, work with ML researchers on architecture exploration, and engage directly with customers to translate product requirements into silicon.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in SoC, CPU, GPU, accelerator, or networking architecture.
• Track record of taking architectures from spec to tapeout.
• Strong performance modeling skills (C++, SystemC, Python, or equivalent).
• Deep understanding of memory systems, interconnects, cache coherence, and PPA trade‑offs.
• Clear technical writing and the ability to lead reviews across teams.

Responsibilities

• Own architecture and microarchitecture for SoCs, subsystems, and IP blocks, from requirements through specification.
• Build performance, power, and area models to drive trade‑off decisions before RTL is written.
• Define memory hierarchies, interconnects, and interfaces, and lead architecture reviews.
• Write specifications that RTL, verification, and physical design teams can execute against.
• Partner with ML researchers to teach models how expert architects reason about design trade‑offs, and evaluate the architectures they propose.
• Work directly with customers to translate their product requirements into silicon.

Skills

C++

SystemC

Python

Job description

About Voltai

Voltai is developing world models, and agents to learn, evaluate, plan, experiment, and interact with the physical world. We are starting out with understanding and building hardware; electronics systems and semiconductors where AI can design and create beyond human cognitive limits.

About Voltai

Voltai is developing world models, and agents to learn, evaluate, plan, experiment, and interact with the physical world. We are starting out with understanding and building hardware; electronics systems and semiconductors where AI can design and create beyond human cognitive limits.

About The Team

Backed by Silicon Valley’s top investors, Stanford University, and CEOs/Presidents of Google, AMD, Broadcom, Marvell, etc. We are a team of previous Stanford professors, SAIL researchers, Olympiad medalists (IPhO, IOI, etc.), the inventors of IC3 and the Murphi verification system, CTOs of Synopsys & GlobalFoundries, Head of Sales & CRO of Cadence, former US Secretary of Defense, National Security Advisor, and Senior Foreign-Policy Advisor to four US presidents.

About This Role

You’ll define the architecture of complex SoCs and subsystems, from performance models to the specs that RTL teams build against. You’ll work on real silicon programs with the world's largest semiconductor companies while shaping how Voltai's AI reasons about architecture, trade-offs, and design intent.

What You’ll Do

• Own architecture and microarchitecture for SoCs, subsystems, and IP blocks, from requirements through specification.
• Build performance, power, and area models to drive trade‑off decisions before RTL is written.
• Define memory hierarchies, interconnects, and interfaces, and lead architecture reviews.
• Write specifications that RTL, verification, and physical design teams can execute against.
• Partner with ML researchers to teach models how expert architects reason about design trade‑offs, and evaluate the architectures they propose.
• Work directly with customers to translate their product requirements into silicon.

What We’re Looking For

• 8+ years of experience in SoC, CPU, GPU, accelerator, or networking architecture.
• Track record of taking architectures from spec to tapeout.
• Strong performance modeling skills (C++, SystemC, Python, or equivalent).
• Deep understanding of memory systems, interconnects, cache coherence, and PPA trade‑offs.
• Clear technical writing and the ability to lead reviews across teams.

Bonus Points

• Experience with AI/ML accelerators or chiplet-based designs.
• Hardware/software co-design experience.
• Interest in how AI can change architecture exploration.