CPU Performance Modeling Engineer (Multiple Levels) - Santa Clara, California, United States of America
$167,000 - $250,600 USD yearly
Originally posted 10 August 2026 by the employer.
Contribute ideas for advanced CPU performance features.
About the role
You will explore advanced CPU performance features, model them, and work with the design team in productizing them.
What you'll do
- Contribute ideas for advanced CPU performance features
- Explore and model advanced CPU performance features
- Collaborate with CPU Performance Architecture and RTL team members to identify product improvement opportunities
- Analyze workloads to identify performance bottlenecks
- Perform self-guided performance simulation studies of design alternatives
- Write and maintain features and sections of the CPU architectural performance model
- Work with RTL and design team to assess implementation cost for new features
- Collaborate with performance team to maintain and improve the simulation environment
What you'll need
- Proficiency in one or more areas of CPU architecture: fetch, decode, branch prediction, renaming, execute units, SIMD, load/store, MMU, caches, retire
- 4+ years of work experience in Software Engineering, Hardware Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related field with a Bachelor's degree; OR 3+ years with a Master's degree; OR 2+ years with a PhD
- 2+ years of CPU Architecture work experience
- 2+ years of work experience with programming (e.g., C, C++)
Nice to have
- Knowledge of OS internals and compiler technology
- MS degree in Computer Architecture
- Experience working in a performance modeling environment
- Proficient in scripting languages such as Perl or Python
- Knowledge and experience with common performance benchmarks and workloads
Skills: CPU architecture, micro-architecture, performance modeling, workload analysis, RTL team
This role has been open 67 days — well below the 78-day median for SoC/Chip Architecture roles.
SoC/Chip Architecture · SOC Architecture
|
Open roles in category
474
|
Median days open
78 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 (474 roles · 65 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 73 | 474 |
| Open roles in the wider Digital Design & Verification family | 381 | 3202 · 115 employers |
| Median days open | 87 d | 78 d (+9 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $238k |
Skills observed across this category: CPU architecture, micro-architecture, performance modeling, workload analysis, RTL team
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm (this employer) · 75 open roles · median 85 d
- NVIDIA · 56 open roles · median 70 d
- Apple · 36 open roles · median 11 d
- AMD · 34 open roles · median 59 d
- Arm Holdings · 27 open roles · median 114 d
- Micron Technology · 22 open roles · median 106 d
How we counted: 474 open SoC/Chip Architecture (SOC Architecture) roles from 65 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 17 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.