CPU Performance Architect, Platform Architecture - Santa Clara, United States
Originally posted 6 October 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role involves pushing the boundaries of innovation for CPU architectures in iPhone, iPad, and Mac. You will contribute to advanced exploration in areas such as branch prediction, code/data prefetchers, novel prediction schemes, and optimization of CPU pipelines.
What you'll do
- Conceive novel performance ideas using micro-architecture knowledge.
- Conduct performance bottleneck analysis on single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads.
- Collaborate with design and implementation teams to assess and refine ideas.
- Model and implement ideas in C/C++ simulators within performance and/or power simulation environments.
- Maintain and improve the simulation environment to enable data-driven decisions.
- Seek out areas for improvement by collecting data and measurements.
What you'll need
- BS degree.
- Experience with CPU architecture and micro-architecture.
- Experience conceiving novel performance ideas using micro-architecture knowledge and performance bottleneck analysis on relevant workloads.
- Experience working with design and implementation teams to iterate on ideas to solve timing and power efficiency challenges and fit them into system constraints.
- Experience in performance and/or power simulation environments, such as taking ideas from concept to C/C++ simulator implementation.
- Experience in scripting languages such as Perl or Python.
Nice to have
- 20+ years of relevant industry experience.
- MS or PhD in Electrical or Computer Engineering or Computer Science.
- Understanding of common data structures and algorithms.
- Knowledge in software design patterns.
- Familiarity with SIMD and vector architectures.
- Knowledge of OS internals and compiler technologies.
Skills: CPU architecture, micro-architecture, performance bottleneck analysis, simulation environments, workloads
This role has been open 3 days — well below the 76-day median for SoC/Chip Architecture roles.
SoC/Chip Architecture · SOC Architecture
|
Open roles in category
461
|
Median days open
76 d
|
Median salary
$236k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Apple | All employers we track in this specialty (461 roles · 63 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 34 | 461 |
| Open roles in the wider Digital Design & Verification family | 70 | 3175 · 113 employers |
| Median days open | 3 d | 76 d (−73 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $236k |
Skills observed across this category: CPU architecture, micro-architecture, performance bottleneck analysis, simulation environments, workloads
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 77 open roles · median 79 d
- NVIDIA · 60 open roles · median 63 d
- AMD · 36 open roles · median 58 d
- Apple (this employer) · 32 open roles · median 3 d
- Arm Holdings · 27 open roles · median 106 d
- NXP Semiconductors · 21 open roles · median 108 d
How we counted: 461 open SoC/Chip Architecture (SOC Architecture) roles from 63 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 9 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.