CPU Core Performance Staff Engineer - TX, Austin, United States
$156,100 - $267,600 USD yearly
Originally posted 23 June 2026 by the employer.
About the role
As a CPU Core Performance Staff Engineer, you will architect, design, and model performance features in AMD's CPU core. You will define CPU architecture and collaborate with RTL design, verification, and post-silicon teams across the development lifecycle.
What you'll do
- Drive the architecture, design, modeling, and optimization of CPU core performance features using high-performance simulation environments. - Develop and enhance CPU performance models to evaluate new microarchitectural features and guide architecture decisions. - Analyze workloads, traces, and performance data to identify opportunities for CPU performance improvements. - Build and maintain cycle-accurate CPU performance models and correlate results across architectural models, RTL, emulation, and silicon. - Perform pre-silicon and post-silicon performance analysis to validate feature behavior and drive model accuracy. - Lead performance correlation, root-cause analysis, and optimization efforts across the CPU development lifecycle. - Provide technical leadership, mentor engineers, and collaborate with architecture, design, verification, emulation, and silicon teams.
What you'll need
- Bachelors, Masters, or PhD in Computer Engineering or Electrical Engineering. - Solid understanding of modern CPU architecture and delivering complex performance features for modern CPU cores. - Experience with pre-silicon and post-silicon performance analysis and correlation across architectural models, RTL, emulation, and silicon. - Experience developing, maintaining, and correlating cycle-accurate CPU performance models.
Nice to have
- Strong background in CPU architecture, microarchitecture, and performance modeling. - Experience modeling and analyzing modern CPU core performance across one or more pipeline domains. - Demonstrated ability to identify performance bottlenecks, design experiments, analyze complex workloads, and drive performance improvements. - Software engineering skills using modern development practices and AI-assisted tools to develop, validate, and optimize performance models. - Technical publications and industry conference presentations.
Skills: CPU architecture, CPU core performance simulator, microarchitecture, post-silicon analysis, workload analysis, performance modeling
This role has been open 121 days — well above the 77-day median for SoC/Chip Architecture roles.
SoC/Chip Architecture · SOC Architecture
|
Open roles in category
473
|
Median days open
77 d
|
Median salary
$238k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | AMD | All employers we track in this specialty (473 roles · 67 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 35 | 473 |
| Open roles in the wider Digital Design & Verification family | 254 | 3298 · 115 employers |
| Median days open | 71 d | 77 d (−6 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $238k |
Skills observed across this category: CPU architecture, CPU core performance simulator, microarchitecture, post-silicon analysis, workload analysis, performance modeling
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 79 open roles · median 86 d
- NVIDIA · 53 open roles · median 72 d
- Apple · 37 open roles · median 15 d
- AMD (this employer) · 35 open roles · median 72 d
- Arm Holdings · 27 open roles · median 120 d
- Micron Technology · 21 open roles · median 99 d
How we counted: 473 open SoC/Chip Architecture (SOC Architecture) roles from 67 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 23 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.