Staff Software Application Engineer - Santa Clara, California, United States
$158,760 - $194,040 USD yearly
Originally posted 7 October 2026 by the employer.
SiFive is looking for a Staff Software Application Engineer to work with SiFive IP.
About the role
This Staff Software Application Engineer role involves working directly with customers to successfully design with SiFive IP, supporting and maintaining datacenter hardware development platforms.
What you'll do
- Support customers using SiFive IP and resolve software issues involving simulations, toolchains, firmware, and operating systems.
- Serve as the technical escalation point for customer issues and represent customer needs internally.
- Help customers understand technical specifications and usage of SiFive's datacenter solutions, create demonstrations, and improve software and documentation.
- Characterize performance metrics and run benchmarks on different platforms including simulation, emulation, and real silicon.
- Create and present customer trainings and enablement sessions, and provide hands-on demonstrations using debuggers, board hardware, and other electronic devices.
- Improve documentation, write application notes, and contribute to knowledge-base content.
What you'll need
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent experience.
- 5+ years of relevant experience, including customer-facing technical support or applications engineering experience.
- Strong background in computer architecture and software development with C/C++/assembly.
- Familiarity with GNU tools, debugger software and hardware, Debug and Trace, Linux kernel, and at least one RTOS.
- Experience with Linux, Git, Jira, and Confluence.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills.
Nice to have
- Previous experience supporting semiconductor IP or processor customers, including waveform analysis, visual trace tools, and instruction logs.
- Knowledge of server hardware, Linux distributions, and software development on this type of platform.
- Experience influencing cross-functional decisions without direct management authority.
Skills: customer support, software issue resolution, technical escalation, SiFive IP, datacenter hardware
This role has been open 2 days — well below the 43-day median for Applications FAE roles.
Applications FAE · Systems Software
|
Open roles in category
82
|
Median days open
43 d
|
Median salary
$173k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | SiFive | All employers we track in this specialty (82 roles · 25 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 1 | 82 |
| Median days open | 2 d | 43 d (−41 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $173k |
Skills observed across this category: customer support, software issue resolution, technical escalation, SiFive IP, datacenter hardware
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 12 open roles · median 71 d
- Keysight Technologies · 10 open roles · median 10 d
- Microchip Technology · 10 open roles · median 63 d
- NVIDIA · 10 open roles · median 18 d
- AMD · 7 open roles · median 32 d
- Infineon Technologies · 6 open roles · median 48 d
How we counted: 82 open Applications FAE (Systems Software) roles from 25 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. Figures refresh nightly.