Principal AI Silicon Architect

Job Title

Principal AI Silicon Architect

Role Summary

Senior individual contributor responsible for defining AI silicon architecture and driving architecture decisions for AI accelerators used in Microsoft's cloud infrastructure. The role partners with hardware, firmware, software, verification, and product teams to deliver production-ready silicon at scale.

Experience Level

Level: Senior. Experience guidance: typically 7–12+ years of technical engineering experience depending on academic degree; preferred 10+ years of silicon architecture experience.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include architecture definition, specification, modeling, and cross-functional leadership through the silicon lifecycle.

• Define and drive high-performance AI silicon architecture direction and specifications for AI accelerators.
• Create functional and analytical models of silicon IP blocks to evaluate tradeoffs.
• Collaborate with AI software and hardware teams to optimize architecture for current and future ML models.
• Support and guide design, verification, emulation, firmware, and kernel teams through end-to-end silicon development, tape-out, and bring-up.
• Balance system-level tradeoffs (performance, power, area, cost, time-to-market).

Requirements

Must-have technical skills, experience, and compliance requirements. Preferred items are noted where applicable.

• Proven track record leading end-to-end silicon programs through architecture, design, tape-out, bring-up, validation, and production readiness (preferred).
• Expertise in machine learning workloads and acceleration techniques for training and inference.
• Domain expertise in one or more: ML acceleration (matrix multiply, numerical formats, parallel compute), SIMD/SIMT vector processors, Network-on-Chip and interconnect fabrics, memory subsystem architecture (including HBM) and high-bandwidth data movement.
• Experience with hardware/software co-design for AI and HPC systems; experience with high-power, large-scale SoC and multi-chiplet architectures.
• Demonstrated ability to drive cross-functional collaboration across architecture, design, software, firmware, verification, and systems teams.
• System-level architectural thinking with strong tradeoff analysis skills.
• Ability to meet Microsoft security screening requirements, including periodic background checks.
• Must satisfy export-control eligibility checks; proof of citizenship or authorized residency may be required as a condition of employment.

Education Requirements

Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field with 7+ years technical engineering experience OR Master’s in those fields with 10+ years OR Bachelor’s in those fields with 12+ years, or equivalent practical experience.

About the Company

Company: Microsoft

Headquarters: Redmond, Washington, United States

Microsoft is a global technology company that develops and sells software, services, devices, and solutions. Known for its Windows operating system, Office suite, and Azure cloud platform, Microsoft aims to empower individuals and organizations around the world to achieve more. The company fosters a culture of innovation and inclusion, focusing on delivering trusted experiences to customers and partners globally.