CPU Architecture Performance Engineer (Multiple Levels) - San Diego, California, United States of America
$148,300 - $222,500 USD yearly
Originally posted 2 July 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This position is responsible for performance verification of custom CPUs targeted at mobile and portable computers.
What you'll do
- Verify performance features between RTL and performance models, troubleshooting discrepancies. - Work with the design team and performance team to develop test cases and validate new features. - Evaluate multi-core CPU operations across areas such as fetch, decode, branch prediction, renaming, execute units, SIMD, load/store, MMU, caches, and retire.
What you'll need
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field with 4+ years of relevant engineering experience (or Master's with 3+ years, or PhD with 2+ years). - Experience in Hardware Engineering, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Systems Engineering.
Nice to have
- MS degree in Computer Architecture with 5 years of practical experience. - CPU architecture knowledge and micro-architecture knowledge. - Experience working in an RTL simulation environment. - Experience working in a performance modeling environment. - Proficiency in Verilog, C, C++, and scripting languages such as Perl or Python. - Knowledge and experience with common performance benchmarks and workloads.
Skills: CPU architecture, micro-architecture, RTL simulation, performance modeling, Verilog
This role has been open 111 days — well above the 77-day median for SoC/Chip Architecture roles.
SoC/Chip Architecture · SOC Architecture
|
Open roles in category
475
|
Median days open
77 d
|
Median salary
$238k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Qualcomm | All employers we track in this specialty (475 roles · 66 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 79 | 475 |
| Open roles in the wider Digital Design & Verification family | 407 | 3283 · 116 employers |
| Median days open | 84 d | 77 d (+7 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $238k |
Skills observed across this category: CPU architecture, micro-architecture, RTL simulation, performance modeling, Verilog
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm (this employer) · 76 open roles · median 87 d
- NVIDIA · 55 open roles · median 70 d
- Apple · 38 open roles · median 13 d
- AMD · 34 open roles · median 63 d
- Arm Holdings · 27 open roles · median 118 d
- Micron Technology · 22 open roles · median 110 d
How we counted: 475 open SoC/Chip Architecture (SOC Architecture) roles from 66 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 21 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 Digital Design & Verification family row. Figures refresh nightly.