Software Engineering Director - AI

Siemens EDA (Siemens Digital Industries Software); Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 147,000 - 264,000; Full time

Job summary

Siemens EDA seeks a seasoned Director of Software Engineering – Applied AI & Agentic EDA Innovation to lead the AI-native vision across semiconductor design lifecycles. You will build industrial-grade AI capabilities, ensure secure enterprise deployments, and align across product divisions and ecosystem partners.

You will mentor teams, drive scalable AI runtimes, and deliver trusted, verifiable AI-powered workflows that boost productivity and design quality. Hybrid/onsite in Santa Clara region.

Qualifications

• Master's or Ph.D. in CS/CE/Applied Math or a related field.
• 10+ years in professional software engineering, with 5+ years leading EDA/AI teams.
• Executive customer acumen with experience in senior technical discussions and reviews.
• Experience driving cross-divisional architectural standards across distributed orgs.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the AI capabilities roadmap across EDA product lines.
• Partner with R&D leaders to align AI platform layers and APIs.
• Serve as senior technical advisor to strategic customers and co-develop workflows.
• Lead multi-agent runtimes and tool integration with secure governance.

Skills

AI leadership

Multi-agent systems

Enterprise software

C++/Python

Customer engagement

Education

Master's or Ph.D. in CS/CE/Applied Math

Tools

C++

Python

Distributed microservices

GPU inference

Job description

Company Overview

Siemens EDA is a global technology leader in Electronic Design Automation software. Our software tools enable companies around the world to develop highly innovative electronic products faster and more cost-effectively. Our customers use our tools to push the boundaries of technology and physics to deliver better products in the increasingly complex world of chip, board, and system design.

Position Overview

We are seeking a seasoned Director of Software Engineering – Applied AI & Agentic EDA Innovation to help advance Siemens EDA's AI-native vision across the full semiconductor and electronic systems design lifecycle. In this role, you will lead the development and production deployment of industrial-grade generative and agentic AI capabilities that are purpose-built for the unique complexity of EDA—grounded in domain‑specific Siemens EDA expertise, trusted design data, secure enterprise infrastructure, and physics‑based EDA engines. You will serve as a pivotal technical and organizational leader connecting Siemens EDA product divisions, algorithmic R&D teams, enterprise customers, foundry partners, and ecosystem collaborators to deliver trusted, verifiable, and scalable AI‑powered workflows that improve engineering productivity, design quality, and time‑to‑results.

Key Responsibilities

• Siemens EDA AI‑Native Vision: Define and execute the engineering roadmap for Siemens EDA's generative and agentic AI capabilities, including multi‑agent workflow orchestration, autonomous design‑space exploration, natural‑language tool control, and AI‑powered design intelligence across functional IC, physical IC, manufacturing, 3D IC, and electronic systems workflows.
• Cross‑Portfolio Strategic Alignment: Partner with R&D leaders, chief architects, product management, and platform teams across the Siemens EDA portfolio—including Solido, Calibre, Questa One, Tessent, Aprisa, Veloce, Catapult, Xpedition, HyperLynx, and related solutions—to establish shared AI platform layers, unified APIs, common agent skills, consistent telemetry, and reusable infrastructure without fragmenting core engines.
• Strategic Customer Engagement: Serve as a senior technical leader and trusted AI advisor for strategic Siemens EDA customers, including hyperscalers, fabless semiconductor companies, IDMs, foundries, and systems companies. Co‑develop customer‑relevant agentic workflows, lead technical evaluations and design reviews, and translate critical design bottlenecks into differentiated Siemens EDA product capabilities.
• Foundry, IP, and Ecosystem Co‑Optimization: Collaborate with leading foundries, IP providers, cloud partners, and AI ecosystem collaborators to enable secure, standards‑aware workflows that incorporate PDKs, design rules, signoff collateral, reference flows, and customer design context into Siemens EDA AI runtimes while maintaining enterprise‑grade governance, auditability, access controls, and IP protection.
• Multi‑Agent Systems & Siemens EDA Tool Integration: Architect scalable agent runtimes and tool‑calling protocols that can plan, act, reflect, iterate, and execute across Siemens EDA and third‑party environments through APIs, MCP‑style interfaces, command‑line flows, GUI integrations, and human‑in‑the‑loop checkpoints, while preserving deterministic fallbacks and signoff‑quality validation.
• Organizational Leadership & Execution: Recruit, mentor, and lead high‑performing teams of applied AI engineers, EDA domain experts, agentic systems architects, and MLOps/AgentOps engineers. Drive disciplined execution, reusable platform investment, product‑quality engineering practices, and cross‑business‑unit collaboration to convert AI innovation into production‑ready Siemens EDA offerings.
  

Qualifications

• Education: Master's or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computer/Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related field.
• Engineering Leadership: 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, including 5+ years leading organizations that deliver commercial EDA platforms, AI‑enabled engineering systems, distributed infrastructure, or production‑grade software used in complex semiconductor design flows.
• Executive Customer Acumen: Demonstrated success in customer‑facing engineering roles—leading deep‑dive technical discovery, executive QBRs, customer advisory boards, and joint innovation initiatives with top‑tier semiconductor or hyperscale design teams.
• Matrixed Cross‑Divisional Execution: Proven ability to drive technical consensus and build unified architectural standards across disparate, geographically distributed product divisions with competing business priorities.
• Agentic Systems, AI, and EDA Data: Hands‑on architectural fluency in multi‑agent orchestration, generative AI, retrieval‑augmented generation, knowledge graphs, multimodal EDA data, graph‑based models for circuits and netlists, domain‑adapted LLMs for RTL and design collateral, and secure deployment patterns for proprietary semiconductor data.
• Semiconductor and Siemens EDA Domain Fluency: Deep understanding of semiconductor design and verification flows from architecture exploration and RTL through implementation, physical verification, signoff, test, custom IC design, PCB/system design, and manufacturing readiness, with appreciation for advanced‑node, chiplet, 3D IC, and heterogeneous integration challenges.
• Software Systems & Infrastructure: Strong command of modern C++ (17/20), Python, distributed microservices, GPU inference scaling, and on‑prem/hybrid HPC execution environments.
• Industrial‑Grade AI Mindset: Demonstrated ability to build AI systems where accuracy, verifiability, robustness, usability, security, and customer trust are core design requirements—not afterthoughts.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience deploying AI‑powered engineering solutions in secure customer environments, including on‑premises, hybrid, air‑gapped, and multi‑tenant architectures with enterprise‑grade access control, auditability, and IP protection.
• Track record of turning strategic customer PoCs, lighthouse deployments, or joint innovation programs into production‑scale Siemens EDA product adoption and measurable business impact.
• Active contributions to EDA/AI thought leadership, standards, ecosystem partnerships, industry consortia, customer advisory boards, or keynote presentations at DAC, ICCAD, DATE, NVIDIA GTC, User2User, or major semiconductor forums.

Why Us

We are Siemens: At Siemens Software, flexibility is how we work—hybrid by default, built on trust and autonomy. Together, 30,000 people across more than 200 countries build technology that shapes the real world. You'll grow through real projects, strong technical peers, and global mobility, backed by the scale and benefits of an industrial software leader. We're committed to equality and inclusion, and we hire based on merit, skills, and impact. Bring your curiosity and creativity and help us shape tomorrow! Siemens Software. Transform the Everyday

Our Benefits & Rewards

The total cash compensation range for this position is 146,700 to 264,000 with 15% of this being comprised of an annual incentive target (100% achievement). The actual compensation offered is based on the successful candidate's job‑related skills, experience, and relevant education/training. Siemens offers health and wellness benefits to employees; you can access the benefits available in your country via the link: Benefits | Siemens Digital Industries Software

Equal Opportunities

We value equal opportunities and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds. At Siemens, we believe people who've had real experiences dealing with being different will excel as leaders. Let's foster a culture of creativity and innovation. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

Canada