Principal Field Application Engineer

Job Title

Principal Field Application Engineer

Role Summary

Senior technical pre-sales engineer in the SiFive Customer Experience (CX) organization. Own and drive technical engagements with customers around CPU, SoC architecture, security, and software/firmware requirements to define solutions based on SiFive products.

Work closely with Sales to meet targets, represent the customer internally, and enable delivery of market-focused RISC-V solutions.

Experience Level

Senior - Principal-level role. The posting indicates a senior profile; the role typically requires multi-year industry experience (see Education Requirements for stated guidance).

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include technical ownership of customer engagements and enabling sales.

• Independently own and drive customer evaluations, product demonstrations, benchmarks, PPA analysis, and FPGA bring-up.
• Take technical ownership of the sales process and collaborate closely with sales teams.
• Interpret customer technical requirements and propose SiFive-based SoC solutions.
• Act as the customer’s voice internally, articulating detailed technical needs to engineering and product teams.
• Support marketing activities as needed (webinars, application notes, trade shows, blog posts).
• Proactively investigate problems and devise engineering solutions for customer issues.
• Travel to customer sites approximately 25% of the time.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and professional traits for success in the role. Nice-to-have items are listed separately.

• Extensive background in CPU microarchitecture, firmware development, and SoC implementation.
• In-depth, working knowledge of CPU and SoC architecture.
• Proven track record of successful customer-facing technical engagements.
• Ability to work independently, take ownership, and drive technical/product interactions with customers.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to communicate technical requirements to internal stakeholders.
• Willingness to travel and present in front of customers (~25% travel).

Nice-to-have:

• Hands-on expertise in hardware development (RTL/implementation, verification/validation, backend flows, FPGA flows) or software development (C/assembly, OS/RTOS, IDEs, compilers, debuggers).
• Experience with CPU IP (ARM, MIPS, or RISC-V).
• Experience with automotive safety / FuSa methodologies.
• Prior customer-facing pre-sales or support experience.

Education Requirements

BS or MS in Electrical Engineering or Computer Science is specified, with a stated expectation of 5+ years of proven industry experience.

About the Company

Company: SiFive

Headquarters: San Mateo, California, United States

SiFive is a pioneering company in the RISC-V ecosystem, focused on transforming the future of computing by delivering high-performance, data-intensive RISC-V solutions. Their compute platforms empower leading technology firms to innovate across various markets, including AI, machine learning, and automotive sectors. SiFive is recognized for its commitment to ongoing innovation and fostering collaboration among talented teams, impacting lives by enabling advanced chip design.