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Memory Design Engineer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

DRAM Engineering (DRAM Memory) focuses on designing and developing Micron's industryleading dynamic ... We are seeking an experienced Distinguished Member of Technical Staff (DMTS) Design Engineer to ...

RTL Design Engineer

Palo Alto, CA · On-site

$120K - $225K/yr

We're hiring experienced RTL Design Engineers from junior to senior levels to play a key role in ... Because modern AI workloads push the limits of performance, memory, and efficiency, our RTL ...

Senior Design Engineer

San Jose, CA · On-site

$116K - $246K/yr

Micron Technology is a world leader in innovating memory and storage solutions that accelerate the ... As a Sr. or Staff Design Engineer in the NVE Design Engineering Analog group at Micron Technology ...

RTL Design Engineer

Palo Alto, CA · On-site

$120K - $225K/yr

We're hiring experienced RTL Design Engineers from junior to senior levels to play a key role in ... Because modern AI workloads push the limits of performance, memory, and efficiency, our RTL ...

We're hiring experienced RTL Design Engineers from junior to senior levels to play a key role in ... Because modern AI workloads push the limits of performance, memory, and efficiency, our RTL ...

Design Engineer/ Front-End Engineer / RTL Datapath Engineer About the role. You design and ... Exposure to scale-up / scale-out interconnects or network switch / NIC / memory-controller ...

We're rebuilding Slack from the ground up around two core ideas: durable memory and agents as first ... We're looking for design engineers who are excited by that challenge and obsessed with experimental ...

Micron Technology is a world leader in innovating memory and storage solutions that accelerate the ... As a Design Engineer in Micron's Pathfinding Design Team, you will play a key role in shaping next ...

Senior Design Engineer

San Jose, CA · On-site

$116K - $246K/yr

Micron Technology is a world leader in innovating memory and storage solutions that accelerate the ... As a Sr. or Staff Design Engineer in the NVE Design Engineering Analog group at Micron Technology ...

As a Qualcomm ASIC Engineer, you will define, model, design (digital and/or analog), optimize, verify, validate, implement, and document IP (block/SoC) development for a variety of high performance ...

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Showing results 1-20

Memory Design Engineer information

See California salary details

$79.4K

$139.5K

$286.7K

How much do memory design engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Jul 14, 2026, the average yearly pay for memory design engineer in California is $139,500.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $93,800.00 and $155,900.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What are the primary challenges faced by Memory Design Engineers on a daily basis?

Memory Design Engineers often encounter challenges such as optimizing memory circuits for speed, power efficiency, and area while ensuring manufacturability and meeting reliability standards. Balancing these conflicting requirements requires strong analytical skills and close collaboration with verification, process, and layout teams. The role also involves troubleshooting design issues, staying updated with evolving semiconductor technologies, and ensuring timely project delivery. Overcoming these challenges fosters professional development and helps engineers build a solid track record in advanced technology nodes.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive in the Memory Design Engineer position, and why are they important?

A Memory Design Engineer requires a strong background in electrical engineering, semiconductor physics, and digital/analog circuit design, typically supported by a relevant bachelor's or master's degree. Expertise with EDA tools like Cadence, Synopsys, or Mentor Graphics, and familiarity with scripting languages and memory characterization tools is essential. Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and effective communication are important soft skills in this role. These competencies are crucial to ensure reliable, high-performance memory designs that meet rigorous industry standards and enable smooth collaboration within multidisciplinary engineering teams.

What engineers make $500,000?

Senior memory design engineers, especially those with extensive experience, specialized skills in semiconductor design, and advanced certifications, can earn $500,000 or more annually. High compensation is often associated with leadership roles, working at major tech or semiconductor companies, and involvement in high-stakes projects requiring deep technical expertise.

What engineers make $200,000 a year?

Memory Design Engineers, especially those with extensive experience, advanced skills in semiconductor design, and certifications, can earn $200,000 or more annually. Salaries vary based on industry, location, and company size, with senior roles often reaching this level in high-tech sectors. Expertise in EDA tools and a strong understanding of memory architectures are also important factors.

What is the role of a memory design engineer?

A memory design engineer develops and optimizes memory components such as RAM, flash, and cache for electronic devices. They work with circuit design, semiconductor fabrication, and simulation tools to ensure memory performance, reliability, and power efficiency meet specifications. Strong knowledge of digital design, VLSI, and industry standards is essential for this role.

What is a Memory Design Engineer job?

A Memory Design Engineer is responsible for designing, developing, and optimizing memory circuits such as SRAM, DRAM, or flash memory. They work on transistor-level design, layout, simulation, and verification to ensure performance, power efficiency, and reliability. Engineers collaborate with process, verification, and product teams to meet design specifications and manufacturing constraints. Their role is critical in advancing memory technology for applications in consumer electronics, computing, and enterprise solutions.

What engineers make $300,000 a year?

Senior Memory Design Engineers in the semiconductor industry can earn $300,000 or more annually, especially with extensive experience, advanced skills in VLSI design, and certifications. High-level roles in technology companies or specialized fields like chip architecture often offer such compensation packages.
What are the most commonly searched types of Memory Design Engineer jobs in California? The most popular types of Memory Design Engineer jobs in California are:
What job categories do people searching Memory Design Engineer jobs in California look for? The top searched job categories for Memory Design Engineer jobs in California are:
What cities in California are hiring for Memory Design Engineer jobs? Cities in California with the most Memory Design Engineer job openings:
Infographic showing various Memory Design Engineer job openings in California as of July 2026, with employment types broken down into 74% Full Time, and 26% Contract. Highlights an 79% In-person, and 21% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $139,500 per year, or $67.1 per hour.
3D Memory Chip Architect and Design, Principal Engineer

3D Memory Chip Architect and Design, Principal Engineer

Qualcomm

San Diego, CA • On-site

Full-time

Posted 21 days ago


Qualcomm rating

9.6

Company rating: 9.6 out of 10

Based on 5 frontline employees who took The Breakroom Quiz

5th of 209 rated software companies


Job description

Company:
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
Job Area:
Engineering Group, Engineering Group > ASICS Engineering
General Summary:
Qualcomm is a company of inventors that unlocked edge AI and connected computing ushering in an age of rapid acceleration in connectivity and new possibilities that will transform industries, create jobs, and enrich lives. But this is just the beginning. It takes inventive minds with diverse skills, backgrounds, and cultures to transform edge AI and connected computing potential into world-changing technologies and products. This is the Invention Age - and this is where you come in.
The Qualcomm Custom Memory Team in Process & Package Solutions Group has an opening in the areas of 3D Memory Design and Architecture for memory-centric compute systems for data center, mobile, compute, and XR. The candidate will assess and optimize the 3D Memory architectures to improve system KPIs such as bandwidth, latency, power, thermal, and area efficiency. The candidate will explore the best organization of near-memory processing units along with the system and memory buses so that the extreme bandwidth of 3D Memory will be fully utilized across the compute fabric for cloud, compute, mobile and IoT as well as studying how to interconnect those memory cubes using scale-up and scale-out fabrics. The candidate will work on solutions on 3D integration of both memory and compute blocks in power, thermal, and 3D fabric restrictions. The candidate is expected to understand the concepts of memory bank organization and signaling, bus, IO, and compute fabrics as well as advanced packaging and 3D integration. This position offers the opportunity to work across multiple organizations such as process and packaging team, AI and compute architects, memory controller team, global SoC team, performance modeling teams, and emulation team. Providing timely feedback and updating architecture and design trade-offs to the team is essential.
Responsibilities:
  • Develop and optimize 3D DRAM/FLASH organization and near-memory computing architectures to achieve high density, high TOPS/mm2, and high TOPS/W
  • Develop and validate models for 3D Memory performance, power, and yield as function of bank, TSV, and power distribution choices
  • Develop novel fabrics for best/robust distribution of high-bandwidth data from 3D DRAM memory arrays to the near-memory computing units across various workloads for mobile, compute, and XR applications
  • Develop power distribution topology that enable robust memory operation in the 3D stack
  • Simulate and emulate system performance of 3D memory architecture choices across AI, compute, and mobile workloads
  • Floorplan 3D memory chips and design memory array control structures under 3D integration manufacturing constraints, testability, repairability, and high performance
  • Knowledge about chip connection fabrics such UCIe, UAL, LPDDR, HBM3/4 and PCIe

Minimum Qualifications:
• Bachelor's degree in Science, Engineering, or related field and 8+ years of ASIC design, verification, validation, integration, or related work experience.
OR
Master's degree in Science, Engineering, or related field and 7+ years of ASIC design, verification, validation, integration, or related work experience.
OR
PhD in Science, Engineering, or related field and 6+ years of ASIC design, verification, validation, integration, or related work experience.
Preferred Qualifications:
  • Experience in RTL, circuit and system design to be able to model and optimize dataflow
  • Experience in SoC architecture and power/clock/bus design
  • Experience in DRAM/FLASH architecture performance assessment
  • Experience in memory circuit design (SRAM/DRAM/FLASH/ROM/OPT, etc)
  • Experience in programming language (C/C++/Phyton) or scripting language (Perl/Python)
  • Ability to develop Verilog/Verilog-A/Verilog-AMS models of critical dataflow is strong plus
  • Familiar with the DRAM/FLASH datasheets and IO interfaces
  • Experience in ASIC design, mixed-signal design, and performance modeling
  • Good knowledge of memory architecture, buses, and 2.5D/3D integration
  • Proficiency in use of EDA tools, Matlab, and Phyton
  • Master's or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field

Soft Skills:
  • Self-Starter with good communication skills and team-working spirit
  • Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
  • Ability to work independently and as part of a team

Qualcomm is an equal opportunity employer. If you are an individual with a disability and need an accommodation during the application/hiring process, rest assured that Qualcomm is committed to providing an accessible process. You may e-mail disability-accomodations@qualcomm.com or call Qualcomm's toll-free number found here. Upon request, Qualcomm will provide reasonable accommodations to support individuals with disabilities to be able participate in the hiring process. Qualcomm is also committed to making our workplace accessible for individuals with disabilities. (Keep in mind that this email address is used to provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities. We will not respond here to requests for updates on applications or resume inquiries).
To all Staffing and Recruiting Agencies: Our Careers Site is only for individuals seeking a job at Qualcomm. Staffing and recruiting agencies and individuals being represented by an agency are not authorized to use this site or to submit profiles, applications or resumes, and any such submissions will be considered unsolicited. Qualcomm does not accept unsolicited resumes or applications from agencies. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias, Qualcomm employees or any other company location. Qualcomm is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes/applications.
EEO Employer: Qualcomm is an equal opportunity employer; all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, Veteran status, or any other protected classification.
Qualcomm expects its employees to abide by all applicable policies and procedures, including but not limited to security and other requirements regarding protection of Company confidential information and other confidential and/or proprietary information, to the extent those requirements are permissible under applicable law.
Pay range and Other Compensation & Benefits:
$192,000.00 - $288,000.00
The above pay scale reflects the broad, minimum to maximum, pay scale for this job code for the location for which it has been posted. Even more importantly, please note that salary is only one component of total compensation at Qualcomm. We also offer a competitive annual discretionary bonus program and opportunity for annual RSU grants (employees on sales-incentive plans are not eligible for our annual bonus). In addition, our highly competitive benefits package is designed to support your success at work, at home, and at play. Your recruiter will be happy to discuss all that Qualcomm has to offer - and you can review more details about our US benefits at this link.
If you would like more information about this role, please contact Qualcomm Careers.

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About Qualcomm

Sourced by ZipRecruiter

Qualcomm is enabling a world where everyone and everything can be intelligently connected. You interact with products and technologies made possible by Qualcomm every day, including 5G-enabled smartphones that double as pro-level cameras and gaming devices, smarter vehicles and cities, and the technology behind the smart, connected factories that manufactured your latest purchase. Our powerful connectivity solutions keep you connected—even in remote areas. Qualcomm 5G and AI innovations are the power behind the connected intelligent edge. You’ll find our technologies behind and inside the innovations that deliver significant value across multiple industries and to billions of people every day.

Industry

Technology, communication and media

Company size

10,000+ Employees

Headquarters location

San Diego, CA, US

Year founded

1985