Staff CPU Architect & Performance Researcher (AI & DC)

Samsungsemiconductor; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 163,000 - 253,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Charitable giving match

Paid time off

Fertility/adoption stipend

Medical travel support

Virtual vet care

Therapy services

Onsite Café & gym

Flexible environment

Job summary

Samsung Semiconductor in San Jose seeks a Staff Engineer to shape CPU architecture and performance for next‑generation data center workloads and agentic AI. You will guide RTL teams, translate ideas to silicon, and own multi‑domain architectural directions.

You will explore AI‑driven methodologies, validate concepts on silicon, and drive performance modeling, with opportunities for patents and publications. This role emphasizes collaboration and impact across the data center pipeline.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Computer Engineering, CS, or a related field with 8+ years of experience (or PhD with 5+ years).
• 4+ years of CPU microarchitecture or performance engineering experience.
• Experience designing RISC‑V, ARM, x86 CPU cores or GPU/NPU vector unit.
• Strong understanding of out‑of‑order execution, branch prediction, pipelines, and caches.
• Hands‑on experience with architectural simulators such as gem5.
• Proficiency in C/C++ and Python.
• Experience analyzing large‑scale performance data and traces.

Responsibilities

• Propose new architecture ideas and own one or more microarchitectural domains, including front‑end, mid‑end, and back‑end.
• Use AI‑driven design methodologies to rapidly implement architectural ideas and validate them on real silicon.
• Build, extend, and validate performance models and architectural simulators.
• Perform CPI/IPC analysis and identify root causes of performance bottlenecks.
• Evaluate microarchitectural features and optimizations using trace‑driven, analytical, and cycle‑accurate models.
• Characterize workloads and benchmarks, including SPEC, server, client, AI/ML, agentic AI, and internal traces.
• Translate performance analysis and modeling results into architectural direction and design decisions.
• Drive research leading to patents and technical publications.

Skills

CPU microarchitecture

Performance engineering

RISC-V/ARM/x86 cores

gem5

C/C++ & Python

Performance data analysis

Education

Master’s degree in Computer Engineering/CS

PhD with 5+ years

Tools

gem5

Job description

Samsung Semiconductor in San Jose seeks a Staff Engineer to shape CPU architecture and performance for next‑generation data center workloads and agentic AI. You will guide RTL teams, translate ideas to silicon, and own multi‑domain architectural directions.

You will explore AI‑driven methodologies, validate concepts on silicon, and drive performance modeling, with opportunities for patents and publications. This role emphasizes collaboration and impact across the data center pipeline.