AI Systems Architect (Models & Hardware Co-Design) - Santa Clara, CA, United States
$200,000 - $500,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 16 July 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role sits at the intersection of machine learning models and hardware architecture, focusing on identifying and shaping AI workloads for future compute platforms. You will evaluate emerging model architectures and translate them into efficient hardware implementations.
What you'll do
- Analyze modern AI model architectures, including transformers, to understand computational and system requirements.
- Evaluate model suitability for application domains and match architectures to specific workloads.
- Work with hardware architects to translate model requirements into efficient silicon implementations.
- Identify opportunities to modify or optimize models, algorithms, or dataflows to improve performance, efficiency, or scalability in hardware.
- Understand training and inference pipelines for AI models and identify implications for hardware design.
- Develop performance and efficiency models to guide architectural decisions.
What you'll need
- Strong understanding of modern machine learning architectures, including transformers and related model families.
- Solid grounding in the mathematical foundations of machine learning, optimization, and deep learning algorithms.
- Experience working with ML frameworks such as PyTorch, JAX, or TensorFlow.
- Ability to analyze model computation graphs and translate them into efficient dataflows and compute patterns.
- Experience with AI model training and inference workflows.
- Strong systems thinking and ability to work across software, algorithms, and hardware.
Nice to have
- Experience with hardware–software co-design or AI accelerator architecture.
- Familiarity with model optimization techniques such as quantization, sparsity, pruning, or distillation.
- Experience implementing or optimizing AI models for specialized hardware platforms.
- Exposure to emerging AI model architectures beyond transformers (e.g., world models, continuous-time networks, reinforcement learning systems).
- Experience working with robotics, autonomous systems, or embodied AI applications.
Skills: AI model architectures, computational requirements, efficient silicon implementations, model optimization, hardware design
This role has been open 84 days — exactly the 84-day median for AI/ML Hardware Engineering roles.
AI/ML Hardware Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
507
|
Median days open
84 d
|
Median salary
$236k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Velaura AI | All employers we track in this specialty (507 roles · 77 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 1 | 507 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 6 | 6118 · 145 employers |
| Median days open | 84 d | 84 d (same as this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $236k |
Skills observed across this category: AI model architectures, computational requirements, efficient silicon implementations, model optimization, hardware design
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 99 open roles · median 115 d
- NVIDIA · 91 open roles · median 54 d
- AMD · 41 open roles · median 82 d
- Micron Technology · 28 open roles · median 61 d
- Analog Devices · 19 open roles · median 37 d
- Mobileye · 17 open roles · median 81 d
How we counted: 507 open AI/ML Hardware Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 77 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 19 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.