Director - Hardware Engineering, AI Infrastructure Systems

Job Title

Director - Hardware Engineering, AI Infrastructure Systems

Role Summary

Lead and establish Axelera's AI Infrastructure Systems division to deliver datacenter-class hardware based on the company's accelerator silicon, from PCIe accelerator cards and OAM modules to 1U/2U rack systems and dense compute nodes. Build the team, define the technical roadmap, and own end-to-end delivery from design through production.

This is a hands-on engineering leadership role: you will review schematics and layouts, define power and thermal strategy, shape platform firmware and BMC, run lab bring-up, and engage directly with customers and manufacturing partners.

Experience Level

Senior-level. Requires extensive hardware engineering experience: typically 15+ years in complex electronics, with at least 5 years in senior leadership running multidisciplinary teams.

Responsibilities

Key responsibilities include:

• Build, hire and mentor a multidisciplinary Infrastructure Systems engineering team (hardware architecture, PCB, power/thermal/mechanical, firmware, validation).
• Define the technical roadmap for board- and system-level products (PCIe Gen6/CXL accelerator cards, OAM/UBB modules, 1U/2U rack systems) aligned with silicon roadmap.
• Act as technical authority on schematics, PCB stack-ups, high-speed signaling (PCIe/CXL/SerDes), memory topology, power delivery and SI/PI methodology.
• Own end-to-end execution: design reviews, bring-up, validation, reliability qualification, DFM/DFT/DFR, NPI and ramp with tier-1 CMs/ODMs.
• Drive datacenter-grade platform engineering: BMC/Redfish/IPMI, UEFI/BIOS, secure boot/root-of-trust, platform firmware resilience and enterprise RAS.
• Lead thermal and mechanical strategy for high-power platforms, including air-cooled chassis and options for direct liquid cooling or immersion readiness.
• Collaborate with platform architecture, silicon, SDK/software and product teams to refine platform requirements and validate cluster-scale performance.
• Engage with strategic customers, system integrators, OEMs/ODMs and ecosystem partners to shape requirements and secure design-ins.
• Define and enforce engineering processes, documentation standards, validation methodologies and quality gates aligned to NPD framework.
• Manage the division's engineering budget, CAPEX, external engineering spend and vendor relationships; identify and mitigate technical risks.

Requirements

Must-have qualifications and experience:

• 15+ years in hardware engineering for complex electronics products, with at least 5 years in senior leadership roles.
• Proven record of shipping datacenter- or server-class compute hardware into volume production (accelerator cards, OAM/UBB modules, GPU/xPU server platforms, nodes or racks).
• Deep expertise in high-speed interfaces (PCIe Gen4/5/6, CXL, high-speed SerDes), server memory architectures, high-current power delivery, VRM design and high-density PCB layout with SI/PI methodology.
• Experience with BMC-based platform management, Redfish/IPMI, UEFI/BIOS firmware, secure boot/root-of-trust and enterprise RAS features.
• Working knowledge of datacenter thermal and mechanical design (air-cooled 1U/2U, DLC, immersion-ready) and rack power delivery (12V, 48V, OCP levels).
• Experience with tier-1 CMs/ODMs on server-class products, including DFM, MP transfer, yield ramp and sustaining engineering.
• Hands-on ability to review schematics, layouts, simulation and lab validation data and to resolve technical escalations.
• Strong strategic thinking, communication skills and ability to engage at executive/customer levels.

Nice-to-have:

• Experience building or scaling engineering teams.
• Experience with AI accelerator platforms, GPUs or custom silicon in a datacenter context.
• Exposure to sovereign AI, EuroHPC, HPC or related defence/dual-use datacenter programmes.
• Additional European language proficiency.

Education Requirements

Not specified.

About the Company

Company: Axelera AI

Headquarters: Eindhoven, Netherlands

Deep-tech startup developing a next-generation AI platform (Metis™) and AI accelerators/in-memory compute SoCs. The company has raised $120M, employs around 220 people across multiple countries, and operates European offices while focusing on high-performance AI hardware and software.