Principal Design Verification Engineer

About Etched

Etched is building AI chips that are hard-coded for individual model architectures. Our first product (Sohu) only supports transformers, but has an order of magnitude more throughput and lower latency than a B200. With Etched ASICs, you can build products that would be impossible with GPUs, like real-time video generation models and extremely deep chain-of-thought reasoning.

Principal Design Verification Engineer

In this role, you will work closely with state-of-the-art architectures for machine learning. You do not need to have experience working with these yet, but you will be willing and able to learn quickly. You will work in a fast-paced environment with a high degree of autonomy, and be responsible for a key part of Etched’s success.

Representative Projects:

• Develop and execute ASIC testbenches using advanced UVM methodologies to verify microchip functionality, including dot-product based attention hardware blocks and HBM interface performance.
• Implement and maintain RTL specifications and verification environments using System Verilog, ensuring system-level test scenarios and coverage plans for AI microchips.
• Perform functional and performance verification with tools like Synopsys VCS and Verdi, and collaborate closely with design and architecture teams to meet design requirements.
• Apply static and dynamic methods for design timing closure, including static timing analysis, and utilize formal verification tools for RTL and gate-level equivalence checking.
• Define and implement assertions and checkers, perform debugging with waveforms and logs, and write automation scripts in Python for testbench generation and results analysis.
• Document and present verification plans, progress, coverage analysis, and report on the verification process, maintaining comprehensive documentation and following up on verification-related actions.

You may be a good fit if you

• Have a deep knowledge of Verilog and UVM
• Have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in electrical engineering, computer science, physics, or mathematics
• Have an understanding of RTL design and microarchitecture
• Are able to learn quickly about transformers and other aspects of modern artificial intelligence
• Can program in Python or another scripting language

Strong candidates may also have experience with:

• Physical verification and post-silicon validation
• PCIe, Ethernet, or HBM interfaces
• Performance modeling and bottleneck analysis

We encourage you to apply even if you do not believe you meet every single qualification.

How we’re different:

Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We think most of the progress in the AI field has come from using more FLOPs to train and run models, and the best way to get more FLOPs is to build model-specific hardware. Larger and larger training runs encourage companies to consolidate around fewer model architectures, which creates a market for single-model ASICs.

We are a fully in-person team in Cupertino, 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 as needed.

Benefits:

• Full medical, dental, and vision packages, with 100% of premium covered, 90% for dependents
• Housing subsidy of $2,000/month for those living within walking distance of the office
• Daily lunch and dinner in our office
• Relocation support for those moving to Cupertino