Director - Silicon Product & Test Engineering
Axelera AIJob Title
Director - Silicon Product & Test Engineering
Role Summary
Lead Axelera's Silicon Product Engineering and the Bristol validation lab end-to-end: tapeout, NPI, and ramp to volume. You will manage the NPI Engineering Manager and Lab Manager, partner with Design, Sales and external manufacturing partners, and report to the executive team.
This is a director-level operational and technical role requiring sound ATE, NPI and OSAT judgement plus commercial ownership of budgets and headcount.
Experience Level
Senior-level (Director). The posting does not specify a numeric years-of-experience requirement.
Responsibilities
Own product and test engineering strategy and run the Bristol validation lab while scaling concurrent chip programs.
- Own silicon product engineering and Bristol validation lab end-to-end from tapeout through NPI to volume production.
- Define and execute the product engineering roadmap across all silicon programs; manage tapeout-to-production timelines and surface risks.
- Set ATE strategy and NPI decisions (build vs buy, test coverage, OSAT selection) and establish NPI governance and phase gates.
- Define product qualification strategy for datacentre and automotive markets and oversee reliability/qualification methodology.
- Manage external partners (OSATs, ATE vendors, foundries, test houses): selection, negotiation, production readiness, test program transfer and ramp.
- Oversee silicon bring-up, characterization, and production test development through the Lab Manager; ensure validation capability (power, JTAG/scan, signal integrity, thermal).
- Evolve the Bristol lab into a scalable, well-controlled operation and own its budget, standards, and safety.
- Build, lead, and mentor a multidisciplinary team of test and validation engineers and lab technicians; recruit and retain senior talent.
- Own departmental budgets, headcount and resourcing; make commercial trade-offs and present status to executives.
- Represent product and test engineering to the executive team, board and key customers; coordinate cross-functional reviews.
Requirements
Must-have technical and leadership qualifications for immediate impact.
- Background spanning product, test, assembly, and qualification of complex SoCs, including hands-on lab experience.
- Deep command of ATE platforms and test program development from early silicon through volume.
- Strong understanding of reliability physics and qualification methodology relevant to automotive and datacentre markets.
- Working knowledge of DFT, silicon debug / FA workflows, and test/manufacturing economics.
- Proven track record leading and scaling technical teams in fast-moving semiconductor environments.
- Senior-level experience managing OSATs, foundries and test houses, including commercial negotiation.
- Experience owning department-level functions: budgets, headcount and resourcing.
- Strong executive communication and ability to present complex technical topics to board-level audiences.
- Comfortable building processes and infrastructure from scratch and making high-impact decisions with incomplete information.
Nice-to-have:
- Automotive (AEC-Q100) or datacentre qualification experience.
- Prior experience in AI hardware or high-growth deep-tech startups.
Education Requirements
The posting does not specify required degrees, fields of study, certifications, or equivalent-experience language. (The company description notes the organisation includes 60+ PhDs among staff, but no candidate degree requirement is stated.)
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.
