Senior CPU Architecture & Performance Engineer

Socket.dev; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 138,000 - 206,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/Dental/Vision/401k

4+ weeks paid time off

Flexible work environment

Job summary

Socket.dev in San Jose seeks a Senior CPU Architecture & Performance Engineer to advance microarchitectural research for data-center workloads and agentic AI. You will model performance, prototype ideas with RTL teams, and validate them on silicon.

You will collaborate across the frontend/mid/end pipeline, drive AI-driven exploration, and publish novel results. Requires C/C++, Python, and strong CPU design experience.

Qualifications

• Master’s in Computer Architecture, Computer Engineering, or related field.
• 3+ years of experience in Computer Architecture, Computer Engineering, or related field.
• 1+ years of experience in CPU microarchitecture or performance engineering.

Responsibilities

• own a specific microarchitectural domain from idea proposal through implementation and validation
• Run architectural simulations and performance models, analyze IPC/CPI/latency/throughput
• Identify performance bottlenecks across front-end, mid-end, back-end
• Develop scripts to automate performance analysis and exploration
• Contribute to patents and technical publications

Skills

C/C++

Python

CPU architecture

Performance engineering

RISC-V

Education

Master’s in Computer Architecture/Computer Engineering

PhD (related field)

Tools

gem5

RTL collaboration

Job description

Socket.dev in San Jose seeks a Senior CPU Architecture & Performance Engineer to advance microarchitectural research for data-center workloads and agentic AI. You will model performance, prototype ideas with RTL teams, and validate them on silicon.

You will collaborate across the frontend/mid/end pipeline, drive AI-driven exploration, and publish novel results. Requires C/C++, Python, and strong CPU design experience.