Founding Hardware Research Engineer

OHO Group (Lithuania); San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

AI-Driven Semiconductor Startup in San Francisco is seeking a Founding Hardware Research Engineer to design, build, and scale environments that evaluate AI agents on real hardware engineering tasks. You will drive research at the intersection of hardware and machine learning, shaping data generation and evaluation pipelines.

The role offers significant ownership and hands-on impact, targeting engineers who have demonstrated leadership, initiative, and exceptional work across hardware, data, and

Qualifications

• Strong background in low-level systems engineering and/or VLSI design.
• Excellent engineering fundamentals and strong research intuition.
• Demonstrated ownership, initiative, and leadership potential.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and scale experimental environments to evaluate AI agents on real-world hardware engineering tasks.
• Conduct research and experimentation at the intersection of hardware engineering and machine learning.
• Develop robust data generation and evaluation processes to support AI-driven hardware design.

Skills

Low-level systems

VLSI design

Research intuition

Ownership potential

Leadership

Job description

AI-Driven Semiconductor Startup | Stealth Opportunity | San Francisco

An early-stage AI research startup is developing technology to transform how semiconductor chips are designed. They're seeking a Founding Hardware Research Engineer to build the data pipelines, environments, and evaluation frameworks needed to train and test AI agents on complex hardware engineering tasks.

This is a highly technical, hands-on role offering significant ownership and the opportunity to work at the intersection of AI research and semiconductor engineering.

This is a role specifically for young and exceptional engineers who have demonstrated significant ownership across hardware, research, data and machine-learning from internships/academia or work experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, build, and scale experimental environments to evaluate AI agents on real-world hardware engineering tasks.
• Conduct research and experimentation at the intersection of hardware engineering and machine learning.
• Develop robust data generation and evaluation processes to support AI-driven hardware design.

Requirements

• Strong background in low-level systems engineering and/or VLSI design.
• Excellent engineering fundamentals and strong research intuition.
• Demonstrated ownership, initiative, and leadership potential.