Principal Security Lead Engineer - CA, Santa Clara, United States
Originally posted 14 September 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This Principal Security Lead Engineer will work with security and firmware engineers, developers, and architects to lead the design and implementation of security spanning pre-silicon and post-silicon for all AMD SoCs.
What you'll do
- Drive security solutions and customer adoption for the server CPU program.
- Drive PSIRT bug fixes to mitigate vulnerabilities.
- Provide consultation to internal and external customers regarding AMD security features and programming requirements.
- Deliver architecture specifications and/or review proposals from internal/external sources.
- Collaborate with internal AMD teams (Product and System Architects, RTL, PD, SW, Bring-up) to deliver security solutions.
What you'll need
- Experience with security architecture that spans pre-silicon and post-silicon.
- Strong technical depth and problem-solving ability in security.
- Experience working with AMD SoC and other IP teams.
- Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent.
Nice to have
- Relevant work experience focused on computer architecture and security, with an understanding of factors influencing register and firmware access protections at chip, system, and product levels.
- Proven track record of providing pragmatic security requirements.
- Experience with system-level modeling, testing, characterization, trend analysis/projection, and model verification.
- Understanding of CPU security/power/performance, SW and FW access, and system-level trade-offs.
Skills: security architecture, pre-silicon, post-silicon, firmware interfaces, CPU security
This role has been open 30 days — well below the 58-day median for Hardware Security Engineering roles.
Hardware Security Engineering · Hardware Security
|
Open roles in category
184
|
Median days open
58 d
|
Median salary
$229k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | AMD | All employers we track in this specialty (184 roles · 47 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 8 | 184 |
| Median days open | 55 d | 58 d (−3 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $229k |
Skills observed across this category: security architecture, pre-silicon, post-silicon, firmware interfaces, CPU security
Who's hiring in this category
- NVIDIA · 27 open roles · median 33 d
- NXP Semiconductors · 23 open roles · median 105 d
- Qualcomm · 17 open roles · median 119 d
- Arm Holdings · 13 open roles · median 99 d
- STMicroelectronics · 11 open roles · median 17 d
- AMD (this employer) · 9 open roles · median 41 d
How we counted: 184 open Hardware Security Engineering (Hardware Security) roles from 47 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 15 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. Figures refresh nightly.