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Role description

Principal ASIC Design Engineer

Cognichip Inc. logoCognichip Inc.
AI-native
TypeFull-time
WorkplaceOn-site
SeniorityPrincipal
Salary$285,000–$330,000
LocationRedwood City, CA
Posted10/31/2026
Engineering

Job Title
Principal ASIC Design Engineer

About Us
At Cognichip, we are building the next-generation AI-enabled solutions to empower semiconductor design engineers with a 10x productivity boost through specialized generative models, agentic workflows and seamless integration with high-performance EDA engines.

Role Overview
We are seeking a Principal ASIC Design Engineer at the intersection of silicon design and artificial intelligence. This senior IC role focuses on re-imagining chip design flows with an AI-first mindset, and charting the path to incorporate enterprise and know-how into intelligent systems forAI-native production-quality chip design and verification. The ideal candidate combines deep silicon expertise, microarchitecture, RTL, DV, and EDA workflows, into structured AI-driven and tool-aware processes.

Key Responsibilities

  • Translate chip-design expertise (RTL/DV best practices, micro-architectural patterns, failure modes) into reusable, AI-consumable knowledge bases and agent playbooks.
  • Identify bottlenecks in advanced chip design process and devise novel models, tools, and to rethink workflows to drastically change the outcome
  • Define EDA tool usage strategies and wrappers for AI-native workflows
  • Define evaluation strategies suitable for AI systems to enhance performance and grounding

Required Qualifications

  • 15+ years of hands-on experience in Chip Design and Physical Design.
  • Proven expertise in Digital IC, ASIC, or SoC design; strong proficiency in SystemVerilog RTL and STA.
  • Solid understanding of microarchitecture concepts: pipelines, FIFOs, DMA engines, caches, and on-chip interconnects.
  • Deep familiarity with the full design cycle: lint, CDC/RDC, functional simulation, and STA.
  • Ability to articulate design tradeoffs and debug complex RTL issues.
  • Proficiency in Python; experience integrating tools into automated workflows.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Demonstrated experience with AI/ML systems (of any kind), prompt and context engineering
  • Ability to translate complex silicon design problems into structured, executable and verifiable components in agent workflows.
  • Experience with AI-assisted EDA tools or ML/chip design research.
  • Contributions to open-source chip design, EDA tooling, or AI/ML infrastructure.

What We Offer

  • A foundational role in how AI transforms chip design.
  • A collaborative environment where deep silicon expertise meets cutting-edge AI research.
  • Competitive compensation, equity, and benefits.
  • Flexible work with access to world-class compute and EDA infrastructure.

We are an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse and inclusive team.

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Company info

Cognichip Inc. logo

Cognichip Inc.

Frontier AI lab building physics-informed foundation models for chip design.

Cognichip is developing the world’s first Artificial Chip Intelligence ACI™ to reimagine chip design. Cognichip tackles high cost and inaccessibility in chip development, enabling hardware to evolve as quickly as AI software innovation. Backed by $93 million funding from Seligman Ventures, Mayfield, Lux Capital, FPV, Candou Ventures, SBI Investment, and additional investors, Cognichip’s ACI features a first-of-its-kind physics-informed foundation model, purposely built for semiconductors. ACI accelerates innovation and broadens access to semiconductor technology by making it easier, more affordable, and accessible to a broader range of innovators.

Private companySeries AHiring fast
Founded2024
HQ
Redwood City, United States
Size51–200 employees
IndustrySoftware Development
Latest fundingSeries A · Apr 1, 2026
Investors
Seligman Ventures
Tech stackjenkins, testrail, redis, bedrock, visual-studio-code, bridge, macos, checkly, microsoft-forefront, argo-cd, databricks, docusign, vanta, mega, electron, llamaindex, workspace, slack, aws-iam, redwood

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