Senior Hardware Design Engineer

About the team

About the role

SambaNova Senior Hardware Design Engineers design component units of the Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU) ASICs deployed in our AI workload acceleration systems. You will work alongside principal engineers, architects, design verification engineers, and physical design engineers to implement innovative features in hardware that provide unique value to SambaNova.

In this role you will take ownership of blocks within a larger subsystem — contributing sections of the microarchitecture specification, writing and debugging the RTL, and carrying your blocks through implementation, tapeout, and silicon bring-up. You will grow your scope over time as you build depth in our architecture.

This role is onsite, based in either our San Jose, CA or Austin, TX office.

Responsibilities

Some of your responsibilities will include...

• Work with principal engineers and architects to author sections of the microarchitecture specification for compute, memory, or networking subsystems.
• Code, integrate, and debug SystemVerilog RTL for assigned blocks through the chip implementation and production lifecycle.
• Meet Power, Performance, and Area (PPA) targets for your blocks using advanced digital design techniques for high-speed design.
• Partner with design verification and physical design engineers to converge on functionality, timing, and area.
• Implement SystemVerilog Assertions (SVA) and run lint, CDC, and LEC flows to check design intent and keep blocks clean.
• Participate in design reviews, presenting your design decisions and incorporating feedback.
• Support post-silicon bring-up and debug for the blocks you own.
• Contribute to design flow improvements, including AI and automation in EDA tool methodologies.

Required qualifications

• Master's degree in Computer Engineering or Electrical Engineering with 3–5 years of relevant experience, or Bachelor's degree with 5–7 years.
• Solid foundation in computer architecture and digital logic design.
• Strong SystemVerilog RTL design skills for high-speed, high-performance ASICs.
• Experience making design decisions that trade off Power, Performance, and Area (PPA).
• Working knowledge of industry-standard interconnects and protocols (e.g., AXI, PCIe, Ethernet, HBM/DDR).
• Experience with digital logic synthesis tools and Static Timing Analysis (STA).
• Proficiency with industry-standard tools for linting, Clock Domain Crossing (CDC), and Logical Equivalence Checking (LEC).
• Experience implementing SystemVerilog Assertions (SVA) to check design intent.
• Familiarity with tools and simulators for hardware performance analysis and tuning.
• Familiarity with Git for managing release cycles.
• Scripting skills in Python and Linux shell.
• Ability to work onsite in San Jose, CA or Austin, TX.

Preferred qualifications

• Exposure to a full ASIC development cycle through tapeout and production silicon.
• Interest in or knowledge of AI workload acceleration techniques.
• Experience with low-power design techniques (clock gating, DVFS) at advanced process nodes.
• Exposure to emulation or FPGA prototyping platforms for pre-silicon validation.