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Chip Engineer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Etched

Chip Simulation Software Engineer

San Jose, CA · On-site

$200K - $250K/yr

The chip simulation team plays a key role in hardware-software co-design, enabling early development of the full software stack. As an engineer on this team, you will design, develop, and test ...

Etched

Chip Simulation Software Engineer

San Jose, CA · On-site

$200K - $250K/yr

The chip simulation team plays a key role in hardware-software co-design, enabling early development of the full software stack. As an engineer on this team, you will design, develop, and test ...

Brahma Consulting Group

Software Engineer

Palo Alto, CA

$160K - $240K/yr

Build and optimize our full-stack developer platform for chip engineers using TypeScript/JavaScript, Python and modern frameworks. * Integrate AI features in close collaboration with ML engineers ...

Nvidia

EDA Workflow Optimization Engineer

Santa Clara, CA · Hybrid

$130K - $154K/yr

As an engineer in our EDA Workflow Optimization team, you will partner closely with our engineering ... You will understand workflows covering the full chip design process from inception through study ...

Eridu AI

ASIC Chip Design Lead

Saratoga, CA · On-site

$250K - $280K/yr

The company is in execution mode and has a world-class engineering team with decades of experience ... Position Overview We are seeking a hands-on ASIC Chip Design Lead to own chip design execution from ...

Google

Chip CAD DevOps Engineer, Google Cloud

Sunnyvale, CA · On-site

$62 - $84.75/hr

As a Chip CAD Engineer, you will be working with a highly creative team, innovating new ways to develop hardware, improve upon industry standards, and with the potential to evolve a new paradigm in ...

Astera Labs

Chip Lead, Senior Director

San Jose, CA

Drive chip development execution from RTL to GDSII, ensuring architecture, implementation, and ... Anticipate challenges early, drive alignment across all engineering functions, ensuring risks ...

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All JobsChip Engineer JobsChip Engineer Jobs in California

Chip Engineer information

See California salary details

$19.6K

$85.8K

$175.8K

How much do chip engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Jul 3, 2026, the average yearly pay for chip engineer in California is $85,751.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $38,679.00 and $121,914.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What are chip engineers?

Chip engineers, also known as semiconductor or integrated circuit (IC) engineers, design, develop, and test microchips that power electronic devices such as computers, smartphones, and automotive systems. They work with complex circuitry, ensuring that chips meet performance, size, and energy efficiency requirements. Chip engineers collaborate with other specialists in areas like software, hardware, and manufacturing to bring advanced semiconductor products from concept to production.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a Chip Engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Chip Engineer, you need a solid background in electrical engineering, semiconductor physics, and integrated circuit (IC) design, usually supported by a relevant engineering degree. Proficiency with tools like CAD software (e.g., Cadence, Synopsys), HDL languages (such as Verilog or VHDL), and familiarity with industry standards or certifications are critical. Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and effective teamwork make someone excel in this role. These skills and qualities are essential for designing reliable, high-performance chips that meet rigorous technical requirements and tight project deadlines.

What is the difference between Chip Engineer vs Hardware Design Engineer?

AspectChip EngineerHardware Design Engineer
Required CredentialsBachelor's or Master's in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related fieldsBachelor's or Master's in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related fields
Work EnvironmentDesign labs, fabrication facilities, simulation softwareDesign labs, schematic tools, testing environments
Industry UsageSemiconductor companies, electronics firms, tech companiesElectronics manufacturers, consumer device companies, aerospace
Common Search/ComparisonYesYes

Chip Engineers focus on designing and developing integrated circuits and chips, often working on the entire chip architecture. Hardware Design Engineers concentrate on creating detailed schematics and layouts for electronic hardware components, including circuit boards and systems. While both roles require similar educational backgrounds and work environments, Chip Engineers typically work more on the semiconductor level, whereas Hardware Design Engineers focus on the physical hardware implementation.

What are some typical challenges a Chip Engineer faces when working on new semiconductor designs?

Chip Engineers often encounter challenges such as balancing power consumption, performance, and area (PPA) during the design process. Meeting aggressive timelines while ensuring design verification and manufacturability can also be demanding. Additionally, collaborating closely with cross-functional teams like software, hardware, and testing engineers is crucial for resolving integration issues and optimizing chip functionality. Staying updated with rapid advancements in fabrication technologies and EDA tools is essential for success in this fast-paced environment.
What are popular job titles related to Chip Engineer jobs in California? For Chip Engineer jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:
What job categories do people searching Chip Engineer jobs in California look for? The top searched job categories for Chip Engineer jobs in California are:
What cities in California are hiring for Chip Engineer jobs? Cities in California with the most Chip Engineer job openings:
Chip Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Chip Engineer job openings in California as of June 2026, with employment types broken down into 79% Full Time, 17% Part Time, and 4% Temporary. Highlights an 94% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 3% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $85,751 per year, or $41.2 per hour.

Chip Simulation Software Engineer

Etched

San Jose, CA • On-site

$200K - $250K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision

Posted 21 days ago

Job description

About Etched
Etched is building hardware for frontier intelligence. We co-design chips, racks, software, and manufacturing to deliver best-in-class throughput and latency across both prefill and decode workloads. Our first products are heavily focused on inference. Backed by hundreds of millions from top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Etched is redefining the infrastructure layer for the fastest growing industry in history.
Job Summary
We are seeking highly motivated and detail-oriented software engineers to join our chip simulation team. We're building custom AI inference chips that leverage tight hardware-software co-design to deliver world-best performance. The chip simulation team plays a key role in hardware-software co-design, enabling early development of the full software stack. As an engineer on this team, you will design, develop, and test simulations of our custom hardware. You will be working at the cutting edge of hardware innovation.
Key responsibilities
  • Design, develop, and maintain simulations of our hardware. Ensuring high levels of accuracy, efficient debugging, and optimal performance.
  • Influence architectural decisions through review and co-design
  • Create and maintain test plans, work with hardware teams to validate their documentation.
  • Build tools to debug simulations, and enable developers to debug software running on the simulator.

You may be a good fit if you have
  • Proficiency in C/C++
  • Strong understanding of low-level software engineering.
  • Strong understanding of hardware engineering.
  • Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Strong candidates may also have experience with (Nice-to-have qualifications)
  • Experience developing hardware or system simulations (e.g., SystemC, gem5, QEMU, or custom frameworks).
  • Experience with custom ML hardware accelerators (e.g., Google TPU)
  • Experience with firmware, kernel and driver development (e.g., Linux, FreeRTOS)
  • Experience with hardware development and verification.
  • Experience with multiprocessing and multithreading.
  • Familiarity with bit-accurate numerics modeling.
  • Experience with performance profiling and optimization of simulation code
  • Proficiency with Python for test harness development, bazel, and git.

Representative projects
  • Implement a simulation of our on-chip modules.
  • Integrate simulated chips with simulated hosts (QEMU), enabling Kernel driver development and host software testing.
  • Integrate multiple simulated chips to validate multi-chip software scale-out and scale-up approaches.
  • Work closely with our software teams in debugging early software deliverables.

Benefits
  • Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage
    • $500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits
  • Housing subsidy of $2k per month for those living within walking distance of the office
  • Relocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)
  • Various wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more
  • Daily lunch + dinner in our office
  • Unlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification

How we're different
Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We are the first inference-focused frontier AI system, betting early on transformer and transformer-like architectures and on increasing model sizes. Our addressable market is the entirety of inference, unlike many of our competitors.
We are a fully in-person team in San Jose (Santana Row), and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both and work across disciplines as needed.

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