Senior Director - System Architecture - Austin, Texas, United States
Originally posted 17 April 2026 by the employer.
About the role
The Senior Director of System Architecture serves as the lead architect developing ultra-low-power, AI-based SoC architectures for future Ambiq products from initial concept to mass production. This role reports directly to the VP of Architecture and oversees architecture definition across low-power embedded microprocessors, microcontrollers, interconnects, memory topologies, clocking, and power management.
What you'll do
- Lead the architecture definition, high-level specifications, flow diagrams, and microarchitecture specifications for ultra-low-power AI SoCs. - Drive system-level power and performance modeling, analysis, hardware/software partitioning, and trade-off studies. - Collaborate with software architecture to define dataflows, APIs, and hardware abstraction layers, and partner with physical design to ensure optimal implementation. - Partner with FPGA prototyping teams on critical SoC feature bringup and assist design teams in debugging via RTL and gate-level simulation. - Support use case and test case development, external power management interfaces, and post-silicon analysis through customer delivery. - Evaluate low-power interconnect, memory, and accelerator technologies, including internal and external IP assessments.
What you'll need
- BS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science. - Minimum of 15 years of microprocessor/microcontroller-based System on Chip (SoC) or similar architecture and design experience targeting wearable, IoT, or mobile products. - Demonstrated experience defining low-power architectures from specification through design to post-silicon validation. - Experience creating formal architectural specifications, power/performance models, and pseudocode for complex SoCs. - Technical knowledge of fabric/interconnect technologies, power management, memory topologies, and advanced process nodes. - Current authorization to work in the United States without visa sponsorship now or in the future.
Nice to have
- MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science. - Familiarity with 2D/3D graphics accelerators, display controllers, video/image processing, and Neural Network processors/accelerators/NPUs. - Experience with wireless technologies and SoCs, specifically Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC, and GPS. - Experience in advanced process node technologies.
Skills: SoC architectures, low-power, AI-based, interconnect technologies, power management
This role has been open 88 days — well above the 78-day median for SoC/Chip Architecture roles.
SoC/Chip Architecture · SOC Architecture
|
Open roles in category
472
|
Median days open
78 d
|
Median salary
$238k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Ambiq Micro | All employers we track in this specialty (472 roles · 65 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 4 | 472 |
| Open roles in the wider Digital Design & Verification family | 13 | 3224 · 116 employers |
| Median days open | 71 d | 78 d (−7 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $238k |
Skills observed across this category: SoC architectures, low-power, AI-based, interconnect technologies, power management
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 73 open roles · median 89 d
- NVIDIA · 56 open roles · median 70 d
- Apple · 36 open roles · median 13 d
- AMD · 34 open roles · median 61 d
- Arm Holdings · 27 open roles · median 116 d
- Micron Technology · 22 open roles · median 108 d
How we counted: 472 open SoC/Chip Architecture (SOC Architecture) roles from 65 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 19 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.