Senior Front End Design Engineer (Microarchitecture) - Sunnyvale HQ

Cerebras; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Cerebras is seeking a Senior Front-End Design Engineer to join their team in Sunnyvale, CA. As a key member, you will design and develop the next generation of the Cerebras Wafer Scale Engine, focusing on high-performance, power-efficient solutions.

The ideal candidate will have a Master’s degree in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering and over 8 years of related experience. The company offers a competitive annual salary ranging from $250,000 to $300,000, alongside a commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in delivering complex RTL designs.
• Experience with front-end chip integration and third-party IP.
• Demonstrated successes in silicon projects.

Responsibilities

• Drive all aspects of chip design including specification and RTL development.
• Collaborate during design closure to meet performance goals.
• Debug silicon-level issues during bring-up.

Skills

RTL design

Chip integration

Networking

High-performance computing

Machine learning

Python

TCL

Education

Master’s degree in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering

Tools

FPGA development toolchain

Scripting tools

Job description

Cerebras Systems builds the world's largest AI chip, 56 times larger than GPUs. This architecture allows Cerebras to deliver industry-leading training and inference speeds, over 10 times faster than GPU-based hyperscale cloud inference services.

This order of magnitude increase in speed transforms the user experience of AI applications, unlocking real‑time iteration and increasing intelligence via additional agentic computation.

Cerebras works with leading model labs, global enterprises, and cutting‑edge AI‑native startups. OpenAI recently announced a multi‑year partnership with Cerebras to deploy 750 megawatts of scale, transforming key workloads with ultra high‑speed inference.

About the Role

As a senior front‑end design engineer, you will be a key part of the world‑class team designing and developing the next generations of the Cerebras Wafer Scale Engine (WSE). This role requires deep expertise in RTL design and integration, with a strong focus on delivering high‑performance, power‑efficient, and scalable solutions.

You will collaborate closely with the design verification, physical design, software and system teams to bring innovative semiconductor architectures from concept to production, addressing the unique challenges of building WSE systems.

Responsibilities

• Drive all aspects of chip design, including Functional Specification, Micro‑architecture, RTL development, and synthesis.
• Work closely with the PD team for design closure to meet PPA goals.
• Collaborate with Design Verification and DFT teams to achieve the best functional and test coverage.
• Work with software and system teams to understand opportunities to deliver optimal performance and feature set for the product.
• Debug silicon‑level functional, timing, and power issues during bring‑up.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent.
• Experience of 8+ years delivering complex, high‑performance, high‑quality RTL designs.
• Experience with front‑end chip integration and third‑party IP integration.
• Demonstrated experience in networking, high‑performance computing, machine learning, or related fields.
• Proven track record of multiple silicon successes.
• Experience collaborating with external vendors.
• Networking stack experience including TCP/IP, RDMA, and Ethernet.
• Knowledge of PCIe, CPU interfaces, and Serdes technology.
• Working knowledge of scripting tools: Python and TCL.

Assets

• Experience with FPGA development toolchain, including place and route, floor planning, and timing analysis.
• Experience managing an external ASIC vendor through the product development cycle.

The base salary range for this position is $250,000 to $300,000 annually. Actual compensation may include bonus and equity, and will be determined based on factors such as experience, skills, and qualifications.

Location

Sunnyvale, CA

Cerebras Systems is committed to creating an equal and diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate different backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We believe inclusive teams build better products and companies. We try every day to build a work environment that empowers people to do their best work through continuous learning, growth and support of those around them.

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