Staff CPU Architecture & Performance Engineer - AI/Data Center

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

Job summary

Samsung Semiconductor in the United States is seeking a Staff CPU Architecture & Performance Engineer to shape the direction of next-generation CPUs. You will identify opportunities across workloads, develop performance models, and translate concepts into implementable designs for silicon.

You will collaborate with RTL teams, explore AI-driven design methods, and own microarchitectural domains from front-end to back-end, delivering meaningful performance gains in real hardware.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree or PhD with required years of experience.
• 4+ years of experience in CPU microarchitecture or performance engineering.
• Experience designing RISC-V, ARM, x86 CPU cores, or GPU/NPU vector unit.
• Proficiency in C/C++ and Python.
• Hands-on experience with architectural simulators such as gem5.

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

C/C++

Python

AI-driven design methodologies

Arch design

Education

Master’s degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field

PhD with 5+ years of relevant experience

Tools

gem5

Job description

Samsung Semiconductor in the United States is seeking a Staff CPU Architecture & Performance Engineer to shape the direction of next-generation CPUs. You will identify opportunities across workloads, develop performance models, and translate concepts into implementable designs for silicon.

You will collaborate with RTL teams, explore AI-driven design methods, and own microarchitectural domains from front-end to back-end, delivering meaningful performance gains in real hardware.