$243,200 - $364,800 USD yearly
Originally posted September 23, 2026 by the employer.
About the role
As a CPU Security Architect, you will define and evaluate access-control architectures, privilege models, isolation boundaries, authorization flows, and protection mechanisms across CPU subsystems, control processors, firmware interfaces, debug resources, shared memory, and broader SoC resources. The role focuses on security foundations across CPU clusters and associated control processors while balancing Power, Performance, and Area (PPA) efficiency.
What you'll do
- Design and implement CPU security features and functions to counteract potential threats.
- Architect access-control topologies and policies for CPU clusters and control processors, including privilege separation, authorization checks, isolation boundaries, secure boot and debug access policies, and protection of security-critical registers, memories, and control flows.
- Collaborate with HW and SW engineering teams to ensure secure design principles are properly implemented.
- Deliver security architecture specifications and define requirements for subsystem architects across CPU clusters, control processors, firmware interfaces, and shared SoC resources.
- Conduct regular security assessments and recommend changes as necessary.
- Track industry trends, threats, and vulnerabilities to keep security systems up to date.
What you'll need
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field with 8+ years of experience, or Master's degree with 7+ years of experience, or PhD with 6+ years of experience in Hardware Engineering, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related work.
- Experience in system-level security, hardware architecture, and access-control policy design across SoC environments.
- Experience delivering security architecture specifications and defining access-control requirements.
Nice to have
- Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related field and 7 years of systems security or related work experience, or PhD in systems security with 5 years of practical experience.
- Experience in system security architecture and CPU microarchitectural security threats across core units, along with countermeasures for microarchitectural attacks.
- Understanding of access-control architectures for CPU clusters, control processors, privileged agents, debug resources, shared memory, and security-sensitive control paths.
- Understanding and experience with at least one CPU ISA such as ARM, x86, or RISC-V.
- Experience performing threat modeling, security risk analysis, or security architecture.
- Understanding of cryptographic algorithms and protocols.
- Hands-on HW design experience for CPU sub-components.
- Experience in formal or semi-formal security verification methods or automated microarchitectural fuzzing.
- Experience defining or verifying access-control policies for CPU cluster management, control processors, firmware interfaces, debug authentication, memory protection, or interconnect-level authorization.
Skills: access-control, microarchitecture, secure boot, CPU security, threat modeling
More semiconductor jobs: Qualcomm jobs · Santa Clara jobs
First seen in our index 50 days ago, well below the 63-day median for Hardware Security Engineering roles.
Hardware Security Engineering · Hardware Security
|
Open roles in category
176
|
Median days since first seen
63 d
|
Category median salary (all employers)
$226k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Qualcomm | All employers we track in this specialty (176 roles · 42 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 20 | 176 |
| Median days since first seen | 64 d | 63 d (−1 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | n/a | $226k |
Skills observed across this category: access-control, microarchitecture, secure boot, CPU security, threat modeling
Who's hiring in this category
- NVIDIA · 33 open roles · median 59 d
- NXP Semiconductors · 22 open roles · median 111 d
- Qualcomm (this employer) · 19 open roles · median 64 d
- Arm Holdings · 13 open roles · median 100 d
- AMD · 8 open roles · median 85 d
- STMicroelectronics · 7 open roles · median 47 d
How we counted: 176 open Hardware Security Engineering (Hardware Security) roles from 42 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 14 Nov 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there. Days are counted from when our index first saw each posting, not from the employer's original posting date.