Staff Silicon Engineer

Cognichip; Redwood City (CA); Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognichip is looking for a Staff Silicon Engineer to blend software engineering with semiconductor knowledge in Redwood City, California. This position aims to develop advanced tools for chip design and verification leveraging AI.

The ideal candidate has over 8 years of experience in silicon design and strong programming skills, particularly in Python or C++. Cognichip operates on a hybrid schedule, balancing in-office and remote work for a collaborative culture.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in silicon design, verification, or hardware-focused software development.
• Deep understanding of ASIC/FPGA design lifecycle.
• Experience with LLMs, prompt engineering, or machine learning frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Translate semiconductor domain expertise into software requirements.
• Architect and implement data pipelines for synthetic code.
• Build and maintain simulation infrastructure.

Skills

Silicon design experience

EDAs from major vendors

Programming in Python/C++

Machine learning frameworks

Education

MS or PhD in related field

Tools

Cadence

Synopsys

Mentor/Siemens

Job description

About Cognichip

At Cognichip, we are building AI-native tools that transform how semiconductor engineers create, verify, and optimize chips. Our platform combines large proprietary models, agentic workflows, domain-specific engineering intelligence, and high-performance simulation infrastructure to accelerate one of the world's most complex engineering disciplines.

Job Title

Staff Silicon Engineer

About The Role

We are seeking a Staff Silicon Engineer who can combine strong software engineering, applied AI/ML, and semiconductor-domain understanding to build production-grade tools for chip design and verification. In this role, you will help turn advanced research ideas into practical workflows used by engineers designing real silicon. This work matters because chip design is becoming too complex for traditional workflows alone, and AI-native engineering systems can meaningfully change the speed, quality, and scale of semiconductor development.

Key Responsibilities

• Bridge Hardware and Software: Translate deep semiconductor domain expertise into robust software requirements and implementations.
• Develop Agentic Data Pipelines: Architect and implement agentic workflows specifically designed to generate synthetic or augmented RTL and UVM code, creating essential datasets for training and fine‑tuning advanced AI models.
• Agentic Workflow Optimization: Fine‑tune and optimize agentic workflow for domain‑specific engineering tasks such as RTL generation, verification planning, and bug triage.
• Infrastructure Development: Build and maintain high‑performance simulation and testing infrastructure to validate AI‑generated hardware designs.
• Technical Leadership: Provide mentorship to junior engineers and lead cross‑functional projects involving AI researchers and hardware architects.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in silicon design, verification, or hardware‑focused software development.
• Deep understanding of the ASIC/FPGA design lifecycle in at least two of the three phases: RTL design (Verilog/SystemVerilog), UVM‑based verification, and physical design flows.
• Experience with, and being a power user of, commercial EDA tools from major vendors (Cadence, Synopsys, Mentor/Siemens).
• Strong programming skills in Python, C++, or similar languages, with experience in building scalable software systems.
• Practical experience with LLMs, prompt engineering, or machine learning frameworks (PyTorch/TensorFlow) applied to technical domains.
• MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with LangSmith and LangGraph to build Agentic workflow.
• Background in computer architecture, specifically for AI accelerators or high‑performance computing.
• Contributions to open‑source hardware or AI projects.

What It's Like Here

• We’re a fast‑moving AI startup with a collaborative, high‑trust culture.
• We value technical excellence, ownership, and the freedom to experiment.
• Our best work happens when our builders and innovators work closely together to turn ambitious ideas into category defining products.
• We operate on a hybrid schedule with four days in office, one day remote.
• If you’re excited to build cutting edge tools that empower semiconductor engineers and reshape how chips are designed, you’ll feel right at home.