ASIC Architect, Etched
$200-265k
Plus Significant Equity
More information about location
5 days a week in office (San Jose, CA)
Designing specialised chips for language model inference
Be an early applicant
Designing specialised chips for language model inference
21-100 employees
Be an early applicant
$200-265k
Plus Significant Equity
More information about location
5 days a week in office (San Jose, CA)
21-100 employees
Company mission
To create the world’s most powerful servers for transformer inference.
Role
Who you are
- PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field
- 5+ years of experience in computer architecture, ASIC design, or related fields
- Strong understanding of computer architecture fundamentals including pipelines, memory hierarchies, and interconnects
- Experience with performance modeling and architectural simulation tools
- Hands‑on experience designing and optimizing floating‑point datapaths or arithmetic‑intensive circuits and working with advanced process nodes
- Proficiency in Rust, C/C++, or Python for modeling and analysis
- Knowledge of modern processor microarchitecture and design tradeoffs
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with attention to detail
- Excellent communication skills and ability to work in cross-functional teams
Desirable
- AI/ML accelerator architectures and dataflow optimization
- RTL design and verification (Verilog/SystemVerilog)
- Cycle-accurate simulation tools (gem5, SystemC, or custom simulators)
- Power and performance analysis methodologies
- ASIC design flow and physical design constraints
- Publishing or presenting at architecture conferences (ISCA, MICRO, HPCA, etc.)
- Hands-on experience with tapeout and silicon bring-up
What the job involves
- We are seeking a talented Computer Architect to join our architecture team and contribute to the design of next-generation AI accelerators
- This role focuses on developing and optimizing compute architectures that deliver exceptional performance and efficiency for transformer workloads
- You will work on cutting-edge architectural problems and performance modeling with deep cross-functional collaboration to bring innovative chip designs from concept to silicon
- Microarchitecture & dataflow innovation: Design and analyze chip architectures optimized for AI/ML workloads, with focus on throughput, latency, and power efficiency
- Design next-generation silicon: Contribute to power and area estimation methodologies for early-stage, next generation architectural exploration
- Custom circuit development: Create architectural specifications and interface definitions for compute blocks and subsystems
- System‑level prototyping: Collaborate with RTL, verification, physical design, and software teams to ensure architectural feasibility and ultimate optimization
- Performance optimization: Conduct architectural experiments using cycle-accurate simulators and analytical models
- Cross‑functional collaboration: Support integration efforts by providing architectural guidance and resolving design challenges
Our take
With AI developing rapidly, the chips that power them are doing so too. The computing requirements of technologies such as Chat GPT will increasingly require customised, hard-wired chips called ASICS, designed specially for the execution of AI models. Whilst GPUs are currently used for AI computing, Etched is making a bet on AI-hardwired chips becoming the predominant powering force of AI.
It’s a gamble, the founders themselves know that if transformers become obsolete, so will their AI-powering product. The SOHU chip that Etched builds differs from GPUs in that it has the AI architecture etched into the chip itself. General Processing Units are “general” and costly, so Etched is betting on specialised transformers taking their place in the near future.
Investors are drawn to Etched’s boldness. The 2022-founded company achieved $120 million in Series A funding just two years into its life, and received a further $500 million at the start of 2026. Etched plans to use this to amp up its competition with GPU company Nvidia, and claims to be 20 times faster than the latter’s AI-powered general processor - and significantly less costly too. Time will tell if Etched’s exciting and potentially revolutionary bet on tailored AI chips and transformers pays off.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Jan 2026
$500m
LATE VC
Jun 2024
$120m
SERIES A
Total funding: $625.4m
Company benefits
- Competitive Salary and Equity - We offer a competitive salary and equity package that aligns with industry standards
- Benefits - Your wellbeing is important to us. We offer unlimited PTO, life insurance, and a 401(k)
- Full Insurance Coverage - Our insurance includes full medical, dental, and vision with 100% of premium covered
Company HQ
Horace Mann and SJSU, San Jose, CA
Leadership
Robert Wachen
(Co-Founder & President)Also the Co-Founder of Prod and Mentor Labs, Birthday Cakes 4 Free Maryland and Generate Sales Online.
Gavin Uberti
(Co-Founder & CEO)Previously Software Engineer at OctoML, Algorithms and BAckend Engineer at Coursedog and was a Software Engineer Intern at Xnor.ai.
Chris Zhu
(Co-Founder)Was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard and a Software Engineering Intern at Amazon and AvantStay. Was an Analyst at Harvard Undergraduate Capital Partners.
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