Principal AI Hardware Architect

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Principal AI Hardware Architect - Hardware/Software Co-Design
The Architect Who Closes the Gap. The Engineer Who Makes Silicon Inevitable.
Location: Austin, TX Team: Cross-functional leadership across Model Engineering, AI Infrastructure, and Silicon Architecture
The Problem Nobody Else Is Solving
Most chip programs are full of brilliant people who never quite speak the same language.
Researchers build ambitious AI models. Silicon teams build powerful hardware. Infrastructure teams wire it all together. And somewhere in the space between those three worlds - in the handoffs, the assumption gaps, the untranslated requirements - massive performance dies quietly on the floor.
We're not hiring someone to manage that problem. We're hiring the person who architects it out of existence.
The Role
As Principal AI Hardware Architect, you will own the most consequential technical contract in the company: the binding agreement between what AI workloads demand, what software systems can express, and what custom silicon can physically deliver.
This is not a support role. This is not a liaison role. This is the highest-leverage engineering seat in the building - the person who looks at a next-generation LLM, a multimodal inference pipeline, or a signal processing workload and answers the question that determines whether a chip program succeeds or settles:
"Here's exactly what this workload needs from silicon - and here's the proof it will work before we ever tape out."
Your decisions won't live in documents. They'll be etched into hardware. Your performance models will guide compute investments. Your architectural direction will shape memory hierarchies. Your cross-team alignment will determine whether the company builds capable hardware - or hardware nobody else can touch.
What You'll Own
Workload-to-Architecture Translation
You take real, modern AI workloads - LLMs, multimodal systems, signal processing pipelines, inference engines - and translate them into the concrete hardware requirements that actually matter: compute paths, memory movement, bandwidth ceilings, interconnect priorities, and the specialized acceleration capabilities that turn a good chip into the right chip.
Hardware/Software Co-Design Leadership
You are the bridge that doesn't bend. You connect model engineering, AI infrastructure, and silicon architecture teams so that every major hardware investment is both architecturally sound and software-accessible. When workload ambition outpaces hardware capability, you find the path forward. When silicon innovation creates a performance unlock, you make sure the software stack can actually reach it.
Performance Model Ownership
Before a single gate is placed, your analytical, simulation, and cycle-approximate performance models are already shaping the architecture. You build and own the projection systems that guide compute investments, memory hierarchy decisions, and feature prioritization - turning uncertainty into defensible, data-driven direction.
Real Workload Validation
You profile real workloads on real and future platforms. You find the bottlenecks - in memory, compute, scheduling, and architecture - and you feed those findings directly into the next hardware and software cycle. No guesswork. No assumptions. Just ground truth.
Strategic Technical Translation
You align people who think in different languages. Hardware architects, AI researchers, and infrastructure teams all operate with different mental models and different vocabularies. You translate across all of them - grounding every product decision in real workloads, measurable constraints, and practical execution paths.
Join our Team
What You Bring
AI/ML Systems Depth You understand modern AI architectures from the inside - inference systems, quantization strategies, deployment constraints, and how workload behavior actually manifests in silicon utilization. You don't just know what a Transformer does. You know what it costs.
Silicon Architecture Fluency You've worked with processor, accelerator, or custom silicon architectures. Compute pipelines, memory hierarchies, on-chip interconnects, performance tradeoff analysis - this is native territory for you, not background reading.
Required Qualifications
12+ years of industry experience across AI, systems, or silicon
Proven experience at the intersection of hardware and intelligent compute systems
Hardware/software co-design leadership across full product cycles
Demonstrated performance modeling expertise - analytical, simulation, or cycle-approximate
Track record of influencing architectural and product decisions across multiple technical organizations
Exceptional written communication and technical specification ability
Strong Python and C++ skills
Strongly Preferred
Experience with custom silicon, accelerators, or advanced hardware platforms
Prior involvement in ISA definition, memory hierarchy design, or accelerator roadmap decisions
Why This Seat Matters
Capable hardware gets built every year. Truly differentiated hardware - silicon that was purpose-built for the workloads that define an industry - is extraordinarily rare.
The difference between those two outcomes is usually one person: the architect who understood the workload deeply enough, the silicon clearly enough, and the software stack completely enough to hold the whole picture together.
That's the person we're building this role for.
What happens once you apply?
Click Here to find all you need to know about what our typical hiring process looks like.
Ericsson uses a merit-based hiring approach that values people with different experiences, perspectives and skillsets. We truly believe this approach drives innovation, which is essential for our future growth. We encourage people from all backgrounds to apply and realize their full potential as part of our Ericsson team. Ericsson is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer, learn more.
If you need assistance or to request an accommodation due to a disability, please contact Ericsson at [email protected].
DISCLAIMER: The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by employees in this position. They are not an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required for this position, and you may be required to perform additional job tasks as assigned.
Primary country and city: USA || Austin, Texas
Job details: Developer
Primary Recruiter: Jim Everett
Compensation and Benefits at Ericsson
At Ericsson, we know that our people are the key to our success. We offer a competitive package to help with your individual needs and goals.
Your Pay
The salary range for this position is dependent on various factors including, but not limited to, location, and the candidate's combination of job-related knowledge, qualifications, skills, education, training, and experience.
• LOCATION: Austin, Texas
Your Health
Ericsson offers excellent health benefits including the choice of three medical plan options and a dental plan option that allow an employee to select the level of coverage that suits their needs. Employees will receive company credits in an amount equal to the cost that Ericsson pays toward the cost of their medical and dental premiums for themselves and eligible covered dependents.
Your Financial Security
We invest in both your short and long-term financial wellbeing. The Ericsson US 401(k) Plan offers an automatic 3% company contribution and Ericsson match $1 for every $1 you put into the 401(k) Plan on the first 3% of your eligible pay, plus 50 cents on every $1 on the next 2% of eligible pay. When you contribute at least 5% of eligible pay, you are receiving Ericsson's full matching contributions of 4%. Matching and company automatic contributions stop when your total eligible pay for the year reaches the IRS limits. Employees will also receive company credits in an amount equal to the cost of basic life insurance and basic accidental death and dismemberment coverage, as well as short-term and long-term disability coverage. Employees also have the option to participate in Ericsson's Stock Purchase Plan.
Your Time
Your work-life balance is important to us. New employees are provided a minimum of 15 days of accrued vacation, up to 3 personal days per year, 11 annual holidays, 8 hours of volunteer time, and 80 hours of sick time annually. Please note paid time off is pro-rated based on the employee's start date. Furthermore, Ericsson provides up to 16 weeks of paid maternity leave and 6 weeks of parental or adoption leave at 100% of pay.
Additional Benefits
Ericsson offers many other company-paid benefits such as financial wellness programs, educational assistance, matching gifts, and recognition programs.
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