System Architect, Custom Silicon - Richardson, Texas, United States of America, United States
$171,000 - $296,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 20 July 2026 by the employer.
About the role
The System Architect leads the definition, architecture, and technical strategy of semiconductor products spanning ASICs, SoCs, MCUs, networking, automotive, aerospace, and infrastructure markets. The position is responsible for translating customer and market requirements into scalable system architectures while aligning hardware, software, silicon design, verification, and validation teams.
What you'll do
- Lead end-to-end system architecture development for semiconductor products from concept through production. - Define product partitioning across hardware, software, firmware, security, and system management functions. - Develop architecture specifications covering performance, power, area, cost, reliability, safety, and scalability requirements. - Drive processor, memory, interconnect, security, networking, storage, and peripheral subsystem architecture decisions. - Lead architecture tradeoff studies balancing performance, power, cost, schedule, and risk. - Develop performance, power, bandwidth, latency, and capacity models to guide architecture decisions.
What you'll need
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline. - Proven track record defining and delivering semiconductor products from architecture through production. - Direct system architecture experience for ASICs, SoCs, MCUs, networking, automotive, aerospace, or data infrastructure products. - Deep understanding of processor architectures, memory hierarchies, interconnect fabrics, security architectures, and system-level design methodologies. - Experience developing architecture specifications, requirements management frameworks, and performance models. - Strong knowledge of hardware/software co-design methodologies and cross-functional work across RTL Design, Verification, DFT, Physical Design, Software, and Validation.
Nice to have
- Master's degree or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field. - 18+ years of experience architecting networking, automotive, industrial, aerospace, AI/ML, security, or embedded computing products. - Domain expertise in processor architecture, memory systems, networking protocols, security architecture, embedded systems, or functional safety. - Experience with third-party IP ecosystems, standards bodies, and industry specifications. - Experience defining hardware/software platforms and reference architectures. - Familiarity with functional safety, cybersecurity, and reliability requirements for mission-critical applications.
Skills: system architecture, semiconductor products, processor architectures, memory hierarchies, interconnect fabrics
This role has been open 91 days — well above the 81-day median for SoC/Chip Architecture roles.
SoC/Chip Architecture · SOC Architecture
|
Open roles in category
470
|
Median days open
81 d
|
Median salary
$238k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | GlobalFoundries | All employers we track in this specialty (470 roles · 66 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 8 | 470 |
| Open roles in the wider Digital Design & Verification family | 42 | 3224 · 116 employers |
| Median days open | 80 d | 81 d (−1 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $238k |
Skills observed across this category: system architecture, semiconductor products, processor architectures, memory hierarchies, interconnect fabrics
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 73 open roles · median 90 d
- NVIDIA · 56 open roles · median 71 d
- Apple · 36 open roles · median 14 d
- AMD · 34 open roles · median 62 d
- Arm Holdings · 27 open roles · median 117 d
- Micron Technology · 22 open roles · median 109 d
How we counted: 470 open SoC/Chip Architecture (SOC Architecture) roles from 66 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 20 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.