Chip Simulation Lead

The role

You will drive the technical direction and development of custom AI accelerator simulation infrastructure. You will guide engineers working on bit-accurate, cycle-aware chip simulators and work with hardware, firmware, kernel, and software teams.

What you will do

• Provide technical leadership for the chip simulation team.
• Own the technical direction of simulation infrastructure.
• Lead design and code reviews.
• Mentor and support engineers.
• Drive hardware-software co-design.
• Oversee simulator integration including QEMU-based host integration and multi-chip simulation.
• Guide validation and testing strategies.
• Contribute to critical implementations, debugging, and architectural prototyping.

Required qualifications

• Deep expertise in C/C++ and low-level systems software development.
• Experience leading complex technical projects and guiding other engineers through design, implementation, and code reviews.
• Strong understanding of computer architecture, hardware-software interfaces, and systems programming.
• Experience building or developing hardware simulators, architectural models, or other complex systems software.
• Ability to make architectural decisions, evaluate technical tradeoffs, and maintain high engineering standards.
• Strong debugging and problem-solving skills across hardware and software boundaries.
• Experience mentoring engineers and collaborating across technical disciplines.
• A track record of owning complex software systems from architecture through delivery.

Nice to have

• Developing hardware or system simulators using SystemC, gem5, QEMU, or custom simulation frameworks.
• Cycle-accurate, cycle-aware, or bit-accurate hardware modeling.
• Custom AI accelerators, GPUs, CPUs, or SoC architectures.
• Firmware, kernel, and driver development, including Linux or FreeRTOS.
• Hardware verification and validation methodologies.
• Multithreaded and multiprocessing simulation frameworks.
• Simulation performance profiling and optimization.
• Python-based testing infrastructure, Bazel, and Git.
• Leading small technical teams or owning simulation infrastructure in a semiconductor or accelerator startup.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage
• $500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits
• Housing subsidy of $2,500 per month for those living within walking distance of the office
• Relocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)
• Various wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more
• Daily lunch and dinner in our office
• Unlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification

About the company

Etched is building hardware for frontier intelligence by co-designing chips, racks, software, and manufacturing. They are a fully in-person team in San Jose (Santana Row).