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Chip Design Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Apple

CPU Design Verification Engineer

Santa Clara, CA · On-site

$159K - $195K/yr

In this highly visible role, you will be at the center of a chip design effort collaborating with all disciplines, with a critical impact on getting functional products to millions of customers ...

DensityAI

Physical Design Timing Engineer

Mountain View, CA

$160K - $165K/yr

Work with chip-design and software teams driving DensityAI's AI accelerator program from first silicon through scale-out. What you'll do * Own Full chip and Block timing methodologies and execution ...

Apple

CPU Design Verification Engineer

Santa Clara, CA · On-site

$159K - $195K/yr

In this highly visible role, you will be at the center of a chip design effort collaborating with all disciplines, with a critical impact on getting functional products to millions of customers ...

NVIDIA Gruppe

Senior SOC Design Engineer

Santa Clara, CA · On-site

$136 - $218.50/hr

Spot inefficiencies in the front‑end chip implementation process and propose actionable improvements * Ensure high-quality RTL delivery to the physical design team with thorough design quality ...

New

Etched

Front-End CAD Engineer

Cupertino, CA · On-site

$2.0K/mo

Ability to automate and optimize CAD workflows for chip design verification. * Ability to interface with EDA vendors as well as internal users, identify the internal needs and priorities and bring in ...

Etched

Front-End CAD Engineer

Cupertino, CA · On-site

$2.0K/mo

Ability to automate and optimize CAD workflows for chip design verification. * Ability to interface with EDA vendors as well as internal users, identify the internal needs and priorities and bring in ...

Apple

SoC Physical Design Engineer, PnR

San Jose, CA · On-site

$159K - $164K/yr

... chip design flow, physical synthesis, floor-planning, place and route (PnR), power grid, timing (STA), physical design verification (DRC/LVS), EMIR (Redhawk/Totem/Voltus). Responsibilities would ...

Apple

SoC Physical Design Engineer, Top Level

San Jose, CA · On-site

$159K - $164K/yr

Description • Work with the FE team to understand chip architecture and drive physical aspects early in the design cycle. • Work with the physical design team to drive methodologies and "best ...

Etched

Front-End CAD Engineer

Cupertino, CA

$2.0K/mo

Ability to automate and optimize CAD workflows for chip design verification. * Ability to interface with EDA vendors as well as internal users, identify the internal needs and priorities and bring in ...

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Showing results 41-60

All JobsChip Design JobsChip Design Jobs in California

Chip Design information

See California salary details

$41.5K

$113K

$198.9K

How much do chip design jobs pay per year?

As of Aug 8, 2026, the average yearly pay for chip design in California is $112,992.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $82,400.00 and $142,100.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

How to get a job in chip design?

To get a job in chip design, candidates typically need a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or a related field, along with strong skills in digital and analog circuit design, hardware description languages like VHDL or Verilog, and familiarity with CAD tools. Gaining experience through internships, projects, or research can improve prospects, and advanced roles may require a master's or Ph.D. in a relevant area. Certifications or specialized training in semiconductor design can also be beneficial.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive in chip design?

To excel in Chip Design, a strong background in electrical engineering, digital and analog circuit design, and semiconductor physics is typically required, often supported by a relevant engineering degree. Familiarity with electronic design automation (EDA) tools like Cadence, Synopsys, and Mentor Graphics, as well as proficiency in hardware description languages (HDLs) such as Verilog or VHDL, are standard prerequisites. Outstanding problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and the ability to collaborate closely with cross-functional teams set candidates apart. These competencies are essential for designing efficient, reliable integrated circuits and meeting the evolving needs of the semiconductor industry.

What are the typical career progression opportunities in chip design?

Chip Design offers a clear pathway for career growth, starting from entry-level positions such as Design Engineer or Verification Engineer and progressing to roles like Lead Designer, Project Manager, or Technical Architect. As you gain experience and demonstrate expertise, opportunities often open up in specialized areas such as physical design, timing analysis, or system architecture. Many professionals also advance to leadership or managerial positions, overseeing teams or entire design projects. Additionally, working in such a fast-evolving field keeps you engaged with the latest technologies and can provide options to transition into adjacent areas like product management or application engineering.

Is chip design a good career?

Chip design is a specialized field within electronics engineering focused on creating integrated circuits and microchips. It offers high demand, competitive salaries, and opportunities for innovation, especially for those skilled in hardware description languages and electronic design automation tools. The career typically requires a strong technical background and continuous learning to keep up with technological advancements.

What is a chip design?

A Chip Design job involves creating and developing semiconductor circuits used in electronic devices. Engineers in this field work on designing, verifying, and testing integrated circuits (ICs) to ensure performance, power efficiency, and reliability. They use specialized software tools for designing hardware and optimizing functionality. Chip designers collaborate with cross-functional teams to bring new processors, memory chips, or custom ASICs from concept to production. This role is crucial in industries like computing, telecommunications, and consumer electronics.

How much do chip designers make?

Chip designers, also known as integrated circuit designers, typically earn between $80,000 and $150,000 annually, depending on experience, location, and industry. Senior roles or those with specialized skills in hardware description languages and CAD tools can earn higher salaries, often exceeding $200,000 with experience and advanced certifications.
What are the most commonly searched types of Chip Design jobs in California? The most popular types of Chip Design jobs in California are:
What are popular job titles related to Chip Design jobs in California? For Chip Design jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:
What job categories do people searching Chip Design jobs in California look for? The top searched job categories for Chip Design jobs in California are:
What cities in California are hiring for Chip Design jobs? Cities in California with the most Chip Design job openings:
Chip Design jobs near you
Infographic showing various Chip Design job openings in California as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 50% Full Time, and 50% Contract. Highlights an 100% In-person job distribution, with an average salary of $112,992 per year, or $54.3 per hour.

Founding Member of Technical Staff - ML Infra

Architect Silicon, Inc.

Palo Alto, CA • On-site

Full-time

Re-posted 11 days ago

Job description

About Architect
Architect is a frontier AI research and product lab for chip design. We build AI models and systems that can explore, design, optimize, and verify new hardware. Our goal is to reimagine chip design using AI, cut down ASIC design time and cost, and enable a new era of ultra-efficient, domain-specific chips powering the future of computation.
Born out of Stanford, our team blends researchers and engineers from Anthropic, Google DeepMind, NVIDIA, Meta SuperIntelligence Labs, Apple, and Intel. Backed by leading VCs and angels, including the Chief Scientist at Google, Stanford professors, and founders of chip companies, Architect currently operates in stealth, pushing the limits of AI4EDA and building the intelligence layer for the hardware revolution.
What You'll Do
As a Founding Member of the Technical Staff (ML infra) at Architect, you'll be responsible for the critical algorithms and infrastructure that our researchers depend on to train models. Your work will directly enable breakthroughs in AI capabilities in chip designs.
  • Build, maintain, and improve the algorithms and engineering systems used to post-train models for chip designs, focusing obsessively on improving training speed and reliability
  • Profile reinforcement learning and training pipelines to detect bottlenecks and implement optimizations for high-performance training setups .
  • Collaborate closely with ML researchers to implement stable and fast versions of new finetuning recipes (like in RLHF/SFT) on different model architectures.

What We'd Like to See
Qualifications & Skills:
  • Degree: PhD in Computer Science, EECS, Mathematics, or a closely related field. Preferably, specialization in Machine Learning, Systems, or Artificial Intelligence. Or BS/MS with a strong research engineering background from frontier labs.
  • ML Infrastructure: Proven track record of building end-to-end ML pipelines, including data curation, preparation, and large-scale LLM finetuning (RLHF, SFT).
  • Debugging & Optimization: Adept at diagnosing why training runs slow down, building instrumentation to monitor system health, and fixing complex issues in distributed environments.
  • Execution: Results-oriented with a bias towards flexibility and impact. You pick up slack and enjoy pair programming.

Bonus:
  • Experience with implementing LLM finetuning algorithms (such as RLHF) and modifying systems based on model architectures.
  • Worked on the post-training or infra team at frontier labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind, Mistral, MSL, Cohere, etc.
  • Foundation in Electrical/Computer Engineering and chip-design or verification processes (not required, but a plus).
  • Publications in top ML (NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML) or Systems (OSDI, SOSP) venues.
  • Founding Engineer or early hire at an AI deeptech startup.

What We Offer
  • Competitive salary and meaningful equity stake
  • Fast-paced startup with autonomy and visible impact
  • Cutting-edge AI-driven chip design challenges

Apply