Research Engineer, ML for EDA

The role

Research Engineers will apply machine learning to power, performance, and area problems in chip design. You will own research projects from problem definition through data, modeling, and evaluation to turn results into capabilities in the ChipAgents platform.

What you will do

• Lead research projects that apply machine learning to power, performance, and area problems in chip design, from problem definition to production.
• Build datasets and benchmarks from EDA tool flows across a range of designs and technologies.
• Design, train, and evaluate ML models on hardware design data.
• Form clear hypotheses, set strong baselines, and distinguish meaningful improvements from benchmark noise.
• Work with engineering and product teams to bring research results into the ChipAgents platform.
• Write well-architected, maintainable code that others can build on.

Required qualifications

• MS or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent research experience in industry.
• Strong ML fundamentals and hands-on experience designing, training, and debugging deep learning models in PyTorch or similar platforms.
• Working knowledge of the digital design flow, from RTL through synthesis, place and route, and timing and power analysis.
• Experience running and scripting EDA tools, commercial or open source.
• Strong Python software engineering skills and a record of writing research code that others build on.
• Ability to identify the crux of an ambiguous research problem, choose the experiments that matter, and explain results clearly to ML and hardware engineers.
• Self-directed and ambitious, with strong ownership and good judgment about when work is ready to ship.

Nice to have

• Publications at EDA venues such as DAC, ICCAD, MLCAD, or ISPD, or at ML venues such as NeurIPS, ICML, or ICLR.
• Prior work applying ML to EDA or chip design problems.
• Experience with ML on graphs or other structured data.
• Industry experience in physical design, timing closure, or power analysis.
• Experience with LLMs or agent systems.
• Experience running large-scale training or data generation on compute clusters.

Benefits

• Unlimited PTO
• full benefits (medical, vision, dental, 401k)
• Two engineering-centric offices with free parking, private gym, and free lunch, drinks and snacks.
• Publish and present your work at conferences where appropriate.

About the company

ChipAgents is a fast-growing team where research ships to semiconductor companies and gets tested on their designs as well as public benchmarks.