Lead Hardware System Architect
$200,000 - $250,000 USD yearly
About the role
You will own the end-to-end hardware development lifecycle for graphics compute platforms, high-performance GPU servers, and ultra-high-speed PCIe graphics form factors. You will drive physical architecture, functional partitioning, and high-speed fabric optimization for graphics workloads and real-time rendering infrastructure.
What you'll do
- Drive system-level architectural trade-offs across GPU silicon package constraints, high-speed routing density, thermal mechanics, and ultra-high-density power delivery networks (PDNs).
- Design and optimize complex PCB topologies utilizing PCIe Gen 5/Gen 6 (CEM specifications) and scale-up interconnect fabrics such as NVLink, Infinity Fabric, and UA Link.
- Collaborate with Silicon, Signal/Power Integrity (SI/PI), and Thermal/Mechanical teams to define board stack-ups, low-loss material selection, and multi-phase power zones handling transient loads from graphics processors.
- Integrate out-of-band telemetry and management infrastructure, designing physical routing for Baseboard Management Controllers (BMCs), SPI, and I2C/SMBus topologies.
- Serve as the primary technical authority interfacing with international JDM/ODM layout and hardware engineering teams through platform bring-up, validation, and DFX compliance.
What you'll need
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- 8+ years of hardware design experience shipping high-performance graphics hardware, GPU motherboards, or high-density parallel compute accelerator boards.
- Hands-on experience designing with PCIe Gen 5/6 and high-speed SerDes (112G/224G PAM4 architectures).
- Deep understanding of high-frequency PCB layout constraints, via optimization, and power delivery networks capable of handling extreme di/dt step loads.
- Proficiency with EDA tools (such as Cadence Allegro, OrCAD) and simulation tools for validating physical design assumptions.
- Experience directing overseas ODM engineering teams through architectural definition, layout execution, and laboratory hardware triage.
Nice to have
- Direct experience with Open Compute Project (OCP) standards or industry-standard multi-GPU form factors.
- Familiarity with CXL or scalable interconnect fabrics.
- Familiarity with liquid cooling or advanced phase-change thermal infrastructure and its spatial and material constraints on physical board design.
- Hands-on lab experience utilizing high-speed validation equipment (such as oscilloscopes, VNAs, BERTs) for signal and power verification on graphics hardware.
Skills: graphics processors, fastest graphics, efficient graphics, ASIC architectures, AI accelerator
More semiconductor jobs: SoC design jobs · Sunnyvale jobs
This role has been open 156 days — well above the 79-day median for SoC/Chip Architecture roles.
SoC/Chip Architecture · SOC Architecture
|
Open roles in category
485
|
Median days open
79 d
|
Category median salary (all employers)
$230k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Bolt Graphics | All employers we track in this specialty (485 roles · 67 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 8 | 485 |
| Open roles in the wider Digital Design & Verification family | 16 | 3525 · 120 employers |
| Median days open | 124 d | 79 d (+45 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $230k |
Skills observed across this category: graphics processors, fastest graphics, efficient graphics, ASIC architectures, AI accelerator
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 78 open roles · median 88 d
- NVIDIA · 67 open roles · median 81 d
- AMD · 39 open roles · median 68 d
- Arm Holdings · 29 open roles · median 11 d
- Apple · 28 open roles · median 12 d
- Micron Technology · 20 open roles · median 111 d
How we counted: 485 open SoC/Chip Architecture (SOC Architecture) roles from 67 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 8 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 — it is counted in the wider Digital Design & Verification family row. Figures refresh nightly.