Sr. Staff Hardware Design Engineer, Rack Scale - Team Lead (AI Data Center) - Austin, Texas, United States of America
$162,600 - $244,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 12 May 2026 by the employer.
About the role
The System Hardware and Validation Technical Lead partners with SoC, software/firmware, rack-level system design, and manufacturing teams to deliver rack-level AI inference solutions for liquid-cooled data centers.
What you'll do
- Own rack-level integration plans across compute nodes/accelerators, PCIe fabrics, networking, storage, power delivery, cooling, and rack management/telemetry. - Drive firmware/software/hardware co-design execution, aligning BIOS/BMC/Redfish/telemetry requirements with hardware schedules and validation gates. - Lead cross-functional design reviews and readiness reviews across architecture, schematic/layout, SI/PI, thermal, mechanical, firmware, and manufacturing. - Coordinate platform-level debug and instrumentation including telemetry, logging, and health monitoring to perform failure analysis. - Establish triage mechanisms covering issue intake, prioritization, and defect metrics to drive root cause and verified closure. - Define and track program-level KPIs including schedule health, build quality, defect trends, coverage, yield, and reliability.
What you'll need
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Engineering, or related field and 6+ years of Hardware Engineering or related work experience (or Master's degree and 5+ years, or PhD and 4+ years). - Experience in hardware engineering execution, tracking phase-gate milestones from concept through production. - Experience with cross-functional technical alignment spanning hardware, firmware, software, and manufacturing.
Nice to have
- Master's degree in computer science/engineering, electrical engineering, or a related field. - 8 years of experience in systems or hardware engineering, hardware project lifecycle management, and technical product/program management. - Experience with rack level systems and components. - Experience with server technologies, including board design, SIPI, thermal and mechanical aspects, BIOS, BMC, and networking. - Experience working with CMs, OEMs, ODMs, and suppliers in product development. - Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, SharePoint, JIRA/Confluence, and Agile methods.
Skills: rack-level integration, compute nodes/accelerators, PCIe fabrics, power delivery, cooling, BIOS/BMC
This role has been open 164 days — well above the 51-day median for Hardware Systems Engineering roles.
Hardware Systems Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
1017
|
Median days open
51 d
|
Median salary
$154k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Qualcomm | All employers we track in this specialty (1017 roles · 102 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 36 | 1017 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 739 | 6277 · 144 employers |
| Median days open | 54 d | 51 d (+3 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $154k |
Skills observed across this category: rack-level integration, compute nodes/accelerators, PCIe fabrics, power delivery, cooling, BIOS/BMC
Who's hiring in this category
- Intel Corporation · 75 open roles · median 36 d
- KLA Corporation · 63 open roles · median 50 d
- Teradyne · 61 open roles · median 36 d
- NVIDIA · 51 open roles · median 68 d
- Applied Materials · 48 open roles · median 67 d
- AMD · 43 open roles · median 53 d
How we counted: 1017 open Hardware Systems Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 102 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 24 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 Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.