Head of Post-Silicon Engineering

This role will be on-site 5 days a week in NW Austin.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Shape the future of ultra-low-power computing. As Head of Post-Silicon Engineering you will own the critical path from first silicon to mass production for a portfolio of industry-leading MCUs powering the next generation of wearables hearables and IoT devices — products used by tens of millions of people worldwide.

This is a senior leadership role with broad technical authority direct executive visibility and real impact on how the world’s most power-sensitive devices are built and shipped.

WHAT YOU WILL OWN

Strategy & Organizational Leadership

• Define and drive post-silicon engineering strategy for ultra-low-power MCUs across the full product lifecycle — from first silicon through production ramp and long-term lifecycle support.
• Build lead and inspire a high-performance global organization of senior managers engineers and technical leads with deep MCU low-power and system-level expertise.
• Establish roadmaps resourcing plans and org structures that scale to support both the current portfolio and next-generation low-power MCU programs.
• Foster a culture of accountability data-driven decision-making continuous improvement and technical excellence.
• Develop talent pipeline and succession plans; attract and retain top-tier industry talent in low-power and system validation domains.
• Manage budgets headcount capital expenditures lab infrastructure and automation tooling investments.

Post-Silicon Validation & Bring-Up

• Own execution of silicon bring-up validation characterization debug and system integration for all MCU-based products.
• Lead teams responsible for:
  • MCU bring-up and initial functionality enablement: JTAG boot power-up sequences clocking resets security and debug interfaces.
  • Functional and system-level validation against specifications and real-world use cases in wearables hearables and IoT — including always-on sensing audio processing and BLE connectivity.
  • Power performance and thermal characterization across PVT corners with emphasis on aggressive ultra-low-power targets: sleep/standby currents active power during sensor and audio workloads and wake-up latencies.
  • Peripheral and interface validation: memory GPIO timers I²C SPI UART audio interfaces BLE/wireless subsystems analog front-ends ADCs/DACs and integrated PMUs.
• Drive automation framework development validation infrastructure and reusable test content optimized for MCU and low-power system behaviors common in wearable hearable and IoT nodes.

Debug & Issue Resolution

• Own post-silicon debug strategy and escalation: lab issues customer-reported failures and production escapes.
• Collaborate closely with Design Verification DFT Firmware Systems and Product/Test Engineering to root-cause failures and implement corrective actions — design fixes ROM patching strategies test changes and specification updates.
• Establish metrics and processes for rapid issue closure silicon errata documentation MCU revision management and risk mitigation with a strong emphasis on field reliability in consumer and IoT deployments.

Test Production & Quality

• Collaborate with Product/Test Engineering on ATE test strategy for MCUs including analog digital low-power and RF/wireless-related test coverage.
• Ensure strong alignment between post-silicon validation yield ramp and manufacturing test to meet quality reliability and cost targets for high-volume consumer and IoT production.

Customer & Field Engagement

• Lead technical engagements with key customers: power deep dives audio and sensor workload characterization connectivity validation and system bring-up support at customer sites.
• Drive resolution of system-level issues spanning firmware hardware sensors audio chains wireless connectivity and power subsystems typical of wearables hearables and IoT products.
• Translate post-silicon learnings field data and customer feedback into product and roadmap influence — your team’s findings shape what we build next.
• Provide technical leadership on reference designs evaluation boards low-power demos audio/sensing example projects and application notes that accelerate customer design-in and time-to-market.
• Maintain strong cross-regional collaboration with engineering and customer teams in Asia.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering Computer Engineering or related field (advanced degree strongly preferred).
• 20+ years of semiconductor development experience with substantial time in MCU or low-power SoC post-silicon validation bring-up or test.
• 7+ years in senior leadership roles (Director Sr. Director or equivalent) managing multi-site engineering teams.
• Deep technical expertise in one or more of:
  • Low-power microcontrollers (ARM Cortex-M or equivalent cores memory subsystems clocking power domains analog/mixed-signal integration security).
  • SoCs optimized for battery-powered wearables hearables and IoT applications.
• Proven track record of first-silicon success productization and high-volume production in low-power MCU/SoC products.
• Hands-on experience with lab bring-up tools and environments: oscilloscopes logic analyzers protocol analyzers power analyzers source meters.
• Experience with validation and automation frameworks: Python/C/C++ scripting regression infrastructure and data analysis.
• Solid understanding of ATE concepts test coverage and correlation between lab system and production test.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex multi-product programs make principled technical and schedule trade-offs and deliver on aggressive timelines.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in Electrical/Computer Engineering or related field.
• Direct experience with ultra-low-power MCU design or validation for wearables hearables or IoT: deep sleep modes always-on power domains sensor hub or audio pipelines power gating DVFS.
• Experience with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) or other low-power wireless protocols sensor integration audio front-ends and real-time processing common in these markets.
• Familiarity with safety regulatory and reliability standards relevant to wearables hearables and IoT — consumer medical-adjacent or industrial IoT contexts.
• Prior leadership of global organizations with teams across multiple regions and time zones.

Must be currently authorized to work in the United States for any employer. We do not sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas (now or in the future) for this role.

What We Do

Ambiq makes unprecedented energy-efficient SoCs and ultra-low power platform solutions that enable edge AI on billions of battery-powered devices. Our mission is to put intelligence everywhere by delivering the lowest-power semiconductor solutions on the planet. With SPOT® technology and the Apollo SoC family Ambiq empowers innovators to build smarter longer-lasting wearables IoT smart home healthcare and industrial devices.Ambiq has helped leading manufacturers worldwide develop products that last weeks on a single charge (rather than days) while delivering a maximum feature set in compact industrial designs. Ambiq's goal is to take Artificial Intelligence (AI) where it has never gone before in mobile and portable devices using Ambiq's advanced ultra-low power system on chip (SoC) solutions. Ambiq has shipped more than 200 million units as of March 2023. The next generation of AI will not depend on constant cloud connectivity.It will run directly on ultra-low-power silicon in wearables sensors and embedded systems.At Ambiq we design and ship production silicon that enables:Real-time inference on constrained devicesModels optimized to run in tens of KBExtreme power efficiency for battery-operated systemsDeep hardware/software co-designThis is not research. It’s deployed technology.

Why Work With Us

Direct influence on silicon architectureSmaller high-impact teamsHardware/software co-design in real timeFaster technical decision cyclesVisible ownership at Staff & Director levelAustin-based collaboration culture