Staff Engineer, SSD Storage and Systems Architecture - San Jose, California, United States
$163,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 15 September 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role involves designing and defining SSD Storage and System Architecture for Enterprise, Datacenter (DC), and AI-optimized storage, with a focus on end-to-end high-performance storage systems.
What you'll do
- Define and model enterprise/DC SSD architectures optimized for massive parallel read paths and high-burst write paths for AI model checkpointing.
- Translate hardware, CXL, and controller constraints into optimized firmware architectures for Samsung’s enterprise SSD controller, FTL, and NAND flash subsystems.
- Collaborate closely with ASIC design, firmware development, and validation teams to resolve cross-domain architectural bottlenecks in ultra-low latency environments.
- Lead the architectural definition of advanced storage paradigms such as FDP, ZNS, and computational storage specifically tailored to offload AI data-preprocessing tasks.
What you'll need
- 10+ years of direct experience in storage system architecture, including foundational hands-on experience with legacy HDD system architecture, caching algorithms, modern NAND flash, SSD architecture, and AI/ML data pipeline storage.
- Verified track record of architectural leadership, technical contributions to open-source storage/AI projects, or technical influence within the broader storage ecosystem.
- Deep technical knowledge of PCIe/NVMe protocols, specialized enterprise features like GPUDirect Storage (GDS), FDP, ZNS, SSD controller internal architectures, and enterprise interfaces (NVMe-oF, CXL, SAS/SATA/SCSI).
- Ability to quickly master and leverage Samsung's proprietary controller capabilities, vertical NAND (V-NAND) characteristics, CXL innovations, and DRAM caching to maximize architectural efficiency for AI workloads.
Skills: SSD Storage, System Architect, AI-optimized, flash translation layers, hardware-software co-design
This role has been open 23 days — well below the 76-day median for SoC/Chip Architecture roles.
SoC/Chip Architecture · SOC Architecture
|
Open roles in category
461
|
Median days open
76 d
|
Median salary
$236k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Samsung Semiconductor | All employers we track in this specialty (461 roles · 63 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 6 | 461 |
| Open roles in the wider Digital Design & Verification family | 14 | 3195 · 113 employers |
| Median days open | 39 d | 76 d (−37 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $236k |
Skills observed across this category: SSD Storage, System Architect, AI-optimized, flash translation layers, hardware-software co-design
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 77 open roles · median 79 d
- NVIDIA · 60 open roles · median 63 d
- AMD · 36 open roles · median 58 d
- Apple · 32 open roles · median 3 d
- Arm Holdings · 27 open roles · median 106 d
- NXP Semiconductors · 21 open roles · median 108 d
How we counted: 461 open SoC/Chip Architecture (SOC Architecture) roles from 63 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 9 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.