Chip Architect

Chip Architect LocationSan FranciscoEmployment TypeFull timeLocation TypeOn-siteDepartmentHardwareAbout PhinityPhinity is building prompt-to-silicon: the agent infrastructure that enables AI agents to design, verify, optimize, and ultimately tape out chips. By 2028, any company will be able to specify a set of requirements for a chip and Phinity will deliver them a GDS file in weeks, not years.Today, chip development requires large teams, fragmented tools, and multi-year development cycles. We are building a closed-loop system in which models can reason about hardware, use engineering tools, learn from verification feedback, and perform increasingly consequential parts of the chip-development process.We work with leading frontier AI labs and are building a small team with deep experience across AI research, silicon architecture, design, and verification. Our long-term goal is autonomous tapeout, making custom silicon accessible enough to accelerate technological progress at breakneck speed.The RoleThe Chip Architect role is for an experienced silicon engineer who wants to architect and lead a a chip, heavily using AI to speed up development. Some example responsibilities include:Architect and drive the development of edge compute chips, owning the microarchitecture and the PPA, timing, area, power, and physical-feasibility tradeoffs that define a good designMake the chip- and subsystem-level architecture decisions that have to survive verification, timing, area, power, and physical constraints, and own the technical bar across the designEstablish rigorous verification and signoff practice across simulation, formal, and physical designArticulate why a design decision is good, and help us encode that judgment into the tooling that lets a small team design hardware at unusual speedWork hands-on with unreleased frontier models as part of how the chip gets builtThe role will involve you working directly with the founders and collaborating frequently with frontier lab researchers.Requirements8+ years architecting and shipping complex chips or subsystems, with designs taken through tapeoutKnowledge across the design stack: RTL and microarchitecture, PPA optimization, verification, understanding of physical design and signoffExperience using AI to develop chips Strong communication skills and willingness to try new methods in ambiguous and fast-moving environmentsWhy you should work with us→ Build a real chip with unlimited AI usage→ Access non-publicly released foundation models and learn what the frontier of intelligence is before everyone else→ Own architecture decisions for novel chip design end-to-endWe offer competitive salary and equity. We work in-person from SF and also have benefits including:Health insuranceRetirement plansUnlimited PTOPaid parental leaveLunch and dinner provided in-office Apply for this Job