AI Systems Engineer, Hardware Architecture

Job Title

AI Systems Engineer, Hardware Architecture

Role Summary

Principal-level hardware architect responsible for defining long-term silicon and system architecture for on-device AI inference and training across AR/VR and wearable platforms. Primary focus areas include imaging systems, camera pipelines, custom AI accelerators, memory and interconnect subsystems, and hardware-software co-design to meet performance, latency, and efficiency targets for spatial computing products.

Experience Level

Senior - principal-level role. Requires substantial experience (see Requirements); the posting specifies 12+ years in hardware systems architecture.

Responsibilities

Lead system- and product-level architecture for AI and imaging in spatial computing devices. Key responsibilities include:

• Define multi-generation hardware architecture strategy for on-device AI inference and training across VR, AR, and wearables.
• Lead architectural exploration and trade-off analysis across compute, memory hierarchy, interconnects, and power delivery.
• Architect end-to-end camera and imaging pipelines, including sensor interfaces, ISP integration, and real-time image processing for perception and vision tasks.
• Drive hardware-software co-design with silicon, firmware, camera systems, and ML platform teams to optimize end-to-end performance.
• Specify camera subsystem requirements: multi-camera synchronization, depth sensing, low-latency visual processing, and related interfaces.
• Establish requirements and performance targets for custom AI accelerators, ISPs, SoCs, and supporting subsystems.
• Develop and maintain system performance models and simulation frameworks to evaluate architectural decisions against real-world workloads.
• Provide architectural guidance to hardware teams and communicate technical rationale to executive and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Engage external silicon partners, camera module vendors, and research groups to evaluate and incorporate emerging imaging technologies.

Requirements

Primary qualifications and technical skills required; preferred items listed separately.

Must-have:

• 12+ years of experience in hardware systems architecture, focused on AI, ML, imaging, or high-performance compute systems.
• Deep expertise in camera pipeline architecture, including image signal processing (ISP) and sensor integration.
• Experience defining SoC or system-level architecture for AI inference or training workloads, including memory subsystem design, compute hierarchy, and interconnect topology.
• Experience architecting imaging subsystems for real-time computer vision: multi-camera systems, depth sensing, and visual-inertial odometry.
• Experience with hardware-software co-design for on-device AI and imaging, and familiarity with ML compiler stacks and ISP tuning workflows.
• Experience developing system performance models and using simulation/analytical frameworks to evaluate architectural trade-offs.
• Proven track record driving multi-year hardware architecture roadmaps and influencing silicon strategy across large organizations.

Nice-to-have:

• Familiarity with custom silicon development flows: architecture-to-RTL handoff, physical design constraints, post-silicon validation.
• Experience targeting power- and area-constrained wearable or mobile devices (VR headsets, AR glasses, spatial computing platforms).
• Expertise in computational photography, HDR processing, or neural ISP architectures.
• Experience evaluating/integrating emerging memory technologies (e.g., HBM, LPDDR5X, in-memory compute).
• History collaborating with ML research and camera teams to translate algorithms into hardware-efficient implementations.

Education Requirements

Not specified.

About the Company

Company: Meta Platforms

Headquarters: Menlo Park, California, United States

American technology company that develops social networking products (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) and invests in virtual/augmented reality hardware and software through Reality Labs, focusing on connectivity, advertising, and immersive computing experiences.