Principal Front-End Design Automation Engineer

Ampere Computing; Portland (OR); On-site; USD 182,000 - 273,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, vision insurance

401K retirement plan

Paid holidays

Job summary

Ampere Computing seeks a Principal Front-End Design Automation Engineer to drive pre-silicon productivity through automation, tooling, and scalable workflows across on-prem and cloud. You’ll partner with RTL/Verification, IT, and hardware teams to raise design quality and throughput while enabling AI-enabled verification capabilities.

6+ years in EDA/DevOps and SystemVerilog expertise are expected. Experience with HPC schedulers (LSF/SLURM), Git/Perforce, CI/CD, and cloud platforms is highly

Qualifications

• 6+ years of Front-End Design Automation (EDA/DevOps) experience in tech/semiconductor space.

Responsibilities

• Provide strong tech guidance for EDA tools and flows to improve productivity and reliability.
• Collaborate with RTL design and verification to deploy new methods.
• Deploy and administer custom Ampere automation to streamline RTL design/verification.
• Support EDA tools for SystemVerilog simulation, lint, CDC, RDC, UPF, and debugging.
• Coordinate with IT, EDA vendors, and RTL teams to deliver scalable solutions.

Skills

Front-End Design Automation

Python or Perl scripting

SystemVerilog

IP/SoC RTL design

HPC scheduling

CI/CD & Cloud

Education

BS in Electrical/Computer Engineering or CS + 8 years

MS + 6 years

PhD + 3 years

Tools

Git

Perforce

RDBMS

CI/CD tooling

Cloud platforms

Job description

Principal Front-End Design Automation Engineer

Ampere is a semiconductor design company for a new era, leading the future of computing with an innovative approach to CPU design focused on high-performance, energy efficient AI compute.

As a pioneer in the new frontier of energy efficient high-performance computing, Ampere is part of the Softbank Group of companies driving sustainable computing for AI, Cloud, and edge applications.

Join us at Ampere and work alongside a passionate and growing team — we’d love to have you apply!

About the Role:

As a Principal Front-End Design Automation (EDA/DevOps) Engineer, you will partner closely with Ampere’s RTL and Verification organizations to drive measurable improvements in pre-silicon productivity through automation, systems, and platform capabilities. Collaborate with hardware, software, and IT stakeholders. You will also support EDA tooling guidance, architect or enhance internal tools, automate end-to-end workflows across on-prem and cloud, and contribute to infrastructure scaling to improve design quality and expand AI-enabled impact in verification and design.

What You’ll Achieve:

• Provide strong tech guidance for EDA tools and Ampere design/verification flows, establishing standards and mechanisms that measurably improve productivity and reliability.
• Collaborate with RTL design and verification teams to define and deploy new or improved methods of work.
• Deploy, and administer custom Ampere automation and services that streamline RTL design and verification, reducing cycle time and operational overhead for design teams.
• Enable and support EDA tools used for RTL design and verification (SystemVerilog simulation, Lint, CDC, RDC, UPF, debug).
• Connect with IT, EDA vendors, RTL design and verification teams to deliver high-performance, efficient solutions.

About you:

• 6+ years of proven Front-End Design Automation (EDA/DevOps) expertise, in the technology sector (semiconductor design is preferred).
• Skilled in Python or Perl scripting.
• Strong SystemVerilog language expertise with background in DV/UVM/Coverage/Simulation/Debug and/or RTL static checks (Lint/CDC/RDC/UPF).
• Experience with IP and SoC RTL design and verification workflows.
• Knowledgeable with HPC scheduling/workload management , like IBM LSF (Load Sharing Facility) or SLURM (Simple Linux Utility for Resourc.e Management), for running EDA workloads.
• Additional skills highly desired: SCM/Source Code Management; Git/Perforce; RDBMS; CI/CD; Cloud Computing

Education:

• BS degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science& 8 years of related experience, MS degree & 6 years, or PhD & 3 years

What we’ll offer:

At Ampere we believe in taking care of our employees and providing a competitive total rewards package that includes base pay, cash long-term incentive, and comprehensive benefits. The full base pay range for this role is between $182,000 and $273,000.

Our benefits include health, wellness, and financial programs that support employees through every stage of life.

Benefits highlights include:

• Premium medical insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, as well as income protection and a 401K retirement plan, so that you can feel secure in your health and financial future.
• Unlimited Flextime and 10+ paid holidays so that you can embrace a healthy work-life balance.
• A variety of healthy snacks, energizing espresso, and refreshing drinks to keep you fueled and focused throughout the day.

And there are much more than compensation and benefits. At Ampere, we foster an inclusive culture that empowers our employees to do more and grow more. We are excited to share more about our career opportunities with you through the interview process.

Ampere is an inclusive and equal opportunity employer and welcomes applicants from all backgrounds. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, citizenship, religion, age, veteran and/or military status, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, physical or mental disability, or any other basis protected by federal, state or local law.