Senior Director, Silicon Architecture and Design Engineering

Job Title

Senior Director, Silicon Architecture and Design Engineering

Role Summary

Lead the silicon architecture and design engineering organization responsible for developing and delivering next-generation FPGA, SoC, and ASIC products. Own cross-functional execution from architecture through production ramp and work closely with product, software, physical design, manufacturing, and external partners.

Experience Level

Senior — requires extensive leadership and technical experience. Minimums in the posting include 15+ years in silicon engineering and 10+ years specifically in networking/Ethernet and across silicon development lifecycle phases.

Responsibilities

The role combines technical leadership, people management, and program execution.

• Build and grow high-performing silicon engineering teams across design, front-end engineering, SoC integration, and program execution.
• Provide technical leadership across product definition, architecture, microarchitecture, RTL design, verification, DFT, emulation, implementation, and validation.
• Plan, prioritize, and drive large, complex silicon programs to meet performance, quality, cost, and schedule targets.
• Make architectural tradeoffs and integration decisions balancing performance, power, area, cost, manufacturability, and schedule.
• Collaborate with product, software, systems, physical design, product engineering, and manufacturing to translate requirements into executable roadmaps.
• Oversee post-silicon bring-up, debug readiness, test coverage, yield optimization, and production ramp activities.
• Represent silicon engineering in executive reviews and roadmap planning, communicating status, risks, and resource needs.
• Manage relationships with foundries, IP vendors, EDA vendors, and manufacturing suppliers.
• Drive process improvements, scalable methodologies, KPI-based execution, and automation to improve predictability and velocity.

Requirements

Core must-have skills and experience; preferred items listed separately.

• Must-have: Proven track record leading large silicon organizations and delivering complex FPGA/ASIC/SoC products into production.
• Deep technical breadth across RTL design, verification, DFT, emulation, implementation/physical design, and post-silicon validation.
• Extensive experience with networking/Ethernet technologies and silicon for switching, interconnect, or data center infrastructure.
• Strong program execution skills: planning, prioritization, milestone tracking, risk management, and cross-functional alignment.
• Experience managing external partners (foundries, IP vendors, EDA vendors, OSATs, contract manufacturers).
• Nice-to-have: Experience at advanced process nodes, FPGA architectures or heterogeneous SoC platforms, AI/ML acceleration hardware, storage/security silicon, and silicon security mechanisms (secure boot, hardware root of trust).
• Track record of building teams and improving engineering execution through methodology, automation, and process innovation.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field is required. A Master’s degree or PhD in a related field is preferred.

About the Company

Company: Altera

Headquarters: Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Altera provides leadership programmable solutions for applications ranging from cloud to edge, unveiling limitless AI possibilities. Their extensive product portfolio includes FPGAs, CPLDs, Intellectual Property, development tools, and System on Modules aimed at accelerating innovation in various fields.