Senior CPU Architecture and Benchmarking Engineer

Intel Corporation; Hillsboro (OR); On-site; USD 191,000 - 269,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive pay

Stock bonuses

Health benefits

Job summary

Intel in Hillsboro, Oregon, is seeking a Senior CPU Architecture and Benchmarking Engineer to drive low-level investigations into CPU designs and craft targeted microbenchmarks that reveal microarchitectural behavior. You will translate findings into actionable architectural guidance shaping Intel's roadmap.

You will collaborate with silicon lab, simulation, backend, and RTL teams, evaluate OS and compiler impacts, and develop tooling to support repeatable benchmarking workflows while

Qualifications

• 8+ years of relevant industry experience or 6+ years with a Master’s degree.
• Deep understanding of out-of-order CPU microarchitecture, including pipelines and memory hierarchy.
• Experience designing and interpreting low-level microbenchmarks for CPU characterization.
• Proficiency in assembly programming and performance tooling (EMON/PMU, VTune).
• Strong C/C++ skills and scripting (Python) for benchmark development.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and analyze pinpointed microbenchmarks to explore low-level microarchitectural behavior.
• Investigate microarchitectural details through benchmarking and analysis.
• Evaluate OS schedulers, runtimes, compilers, and firmware impact on performance and power.
• Identify power/performance gaps and propose architectural solutions.
• Collaborate with silicon lab, simulation, backend, and RTL teams to correlate findings with models.
• Develop tooling and frameworks to support repeatable benchmarking workflows.
• Communicate technical findings to senior engineering and product teams.

Skills

CPU architecture

Benchmarking

Low-level testing

C/C++

Python scripting

EMON/PMU

VTune

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Electrical/Computer Engineering or Computer Science

Master's Degree in related discipline

Tools

VTune

EMON/PMU counters

Job description

Join Intel's architecture team as a Senior CPU Architecture and Benchmarking Engineer. You will drive rigorous, low-level investigations into CPU designs, crafting targeted microbenchmarks that expose microarchitectural behavior at fine granularity and translating those findings into actionable architectural guidance. Your work will bridge the gap between silicon measurement, software behavior, and architectural definition, playing a key role in shaping Intel's future CPU roadmap.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and analyze pinpointed microbenchmarks to explore and characterize low-level microarchitectural behavior including branch prediction, instruction fetch/decode, execution units, memory subsystem, prefetchers, and power delivery interactions
• Investigate and document microarchitectural details of CPU designs through systematic benchmarking and analysis
• Evaluate the impact of system software layers — including OS schedulers, runtime libraries, compilers, and firmware — on end-product CPU performance and power efficiency
• Identify power/performance gaps and propose concrete architectural solutions and mitigations
• Collaborate with silicon lab, simulation, backend, and RTL teams to correlate benchmarking findings with pre-silicon models and post-silicon measurements
• Explore and evaluate proposed microarchitectural ideas in CPU performance simulators, providing quantitative measure of value
• Develop and maintain tooling, test infrastructure, and analysis frameworks to support repeatable and scalable benchmarking workflows
• Communicate technical findings clearly and persuasively in written reports and presentations to senior engineering and product teams

To Be Successful in This Role, You Should Demonstrate

• Intellectual curiosity and a systematic mindset when investigating complex microarchitectural behavior, with the rigor to design experiments that yield clear, reproducible conclusions
• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across silicon, simulation, and software teams to align findings and drive architectural decisions
• The ability to communicate complex technical findings with clarity and confidence to both engineering peers and senior leadership audiences

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline with 8+ years of relevant industry experience, OR a Master's Degree in a related discipline with 6+ years of relevant industry experience
• Deep understanding of out-of-order CPU microarchitecture, including pipeline stages, execution resources, memory hierarchy, and power/performance interactions
• Demonstrated experience designing and interpreting low-level microbenchmarks for CPU characterization
• Proficiency in assembly programming and low-level performance tooling (e.g., EMON/PMU counters, VTune, or equivalent)
• Strong background in performance analysis methodologies, bottleneck identification, and quantitative trade-off evaluation
• Proficiency in C/C++ and scripting languages (Python or similar) for benchmark development and data analysis

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with cycle-accurate CPU performance simulators and the ability to model and evaluate new microarchitectural features
• Understanding of software stack impacts on CPU performance, including OS scheduler behavior, memory allocators, compiler code generation, and BIOS/firmware tuning
• Experience reading or debugging RTL to investigate microarchitectural behavior or validate benchmark hypotheses
• Track record of translating benchmarking insights into concrete architectural recommendations or published technical contributions

Job Type

Experienced Hire

Shift

Shift 1 (United States of America)

Primary Location

US, Oregon, Hillsboro

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, religious creed, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, military and veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by local law, regulation, or ordinance.

Benefits

• We offer a total compensation package that ranks among the best in the industry. It consists of competitive pay, stock bonuses, and benefit programs which include health, retirement, and vacation. Find out more about the benefits of working at Intel.
• Annual Salary Range for jobs which could be performed in the US: $190,610.00-269,100.00 USD

Work Model for this Role

This role will require an on-site presence.

Additional Information

Job posting details (such as work model, location or time type) are subject to change. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Intel is committed to Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) compliance and ethical hiring practices. We do not charge any fees during our hiring process. Candidates should never be required to pay recruitment fees, medical examination fees, or any other charges as a condition of employment. If you are asked to pay any fees during our hiring process, please report this immediately to your recruiter. Intel’s official careers website. Find your next job and take on projects that shape tomorrow’s technology. Benefits Internships Life at Intel Locations Recruitment Process