Principal SoC Architect - CA, San Jose, United States
Originally posted 23 September 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role is for a seasoned SoC Architect with expertise or significant interest in System Architecture, driving architecture, product roadmaps, and product requirements. This senior position involves leading architecture teams and negotiating with design teams, marketing, and business unit executives.
What you'll do
- Define product features and capabilities, and close architecture and micro-architecture requirements.
- Drive technical specifications for SoC and IP blocks to meet requirements and provide technical direction to execution teams.
- Comprehend the SOC as a complete system, including HW (Silicon), FW, and SW, ensuring alignment for features, performance, and power.
- Work cross-functionally with IP/Domain architects to identify and assess complex technical issues/risks and develop architectural solutions.
- Support Post-Si teams for Product Performance, Power, and functional issues debug/resolution.
What you'll need
- Outstanding foundation in Systems & SoC architecture.
- Expertise in one or more of: Processors, Memory sub-system, Interconnects, Coherency, Multimedia, I/O subsystems, Clocks, Resets, Safety, Reliability, and Security.
- Experience analyzing System-level Micro-Architectural features to identify performance bottlenecks within different workloads.
- Demonstrated expertise in power management microarchitecture, low power design, and power optimization, along with power impact at architecture, logic design, and circuit levels.
- Experience defining architecture across multiple end markets such as Datacenter, Edge AI, Automotive, Industrial, Networking, and Embedded systems.
- Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD degree in a related discipline.
Skills: SoC Architecture, System Architecture, micro-architecture, Power, Performance and Area, IP blocks
This role has been open 16 days — well below the 77-day median for SoC/Chip Architecture roles.
SoC/Chip Architecture · SOC Architecture
|
Open roles in category
460
|
Median days open
77 d
|
Median salary
$236k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | AMD | All employers we track in this specialty (460 roles · 63 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 34 | 460 |
| Open roles in the wider Digital Design & Verification family | 265 | 3166 · 114 employers |
| Median days open | 60 d | 77 d (−17 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $236k |
Skills observed across this category: SoC Architecture, System Architecture, micro-architecture, Power, Performance and Area, IP blocks
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 76 open roles · median 81 d
- NVIDIA · 60 open roles · median 64 d
- AMD (this employer) · 36 open roles · median 59 d
- Apple · 34 open roles · median 4 d
- Arm Holdings · 27 open roles · median 107 d
- NXP Semiconductors · 21 open roles · median 109 d
How we counted: 460 open SoC/Chip Architecture (SOC Architecture) roles from 63 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 10 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.