Principal Architect (San Francisco)

Nuvoton Technology Corporation America (NTCA) is seeking an experienced Principal Architect to lead the definition and evolution of next‑generation SoC and ASIC architectures. This is a highly visible technical leadership role responsible for driving innovation across hardware and software platforms, enabling breakthrough products that deliver industry‑leading performance, efficiency, and security.

As a Principal Architect, you will work cross‑functionally with marketing, system architecture, design, verification, software, and physical design teams to define and deliver cutting‑edge SoC solutions from concept through production.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and drive the architecture roadmap for advanced SoC and ASIC products.
• Collaborate with product marketing and business development teams to identify customer requirements and emerging market opportunities.
• Lead hardware/software co-design efforts, defining efficient architectures and software frameworks to accelerate product development.
• Work closely with Design, Verification, Physical Design, Systems, and Software teams to implement new architectural features.
• Analyze system workloads and application performance, evaluating power, performance, and area (PPA) trade‑offs to optimize system efficiency.
• Develop data‑driven methodologies to evaluate and improve workload performance, including AI/ML applications such as LLMs, VLAs, computer vision, CNNs, and NLP.
• Drive architectural improvements into future silicon generations with measurable performance gains.
• Contribute expertise in one or more of the following domains:
• ARM and RISC‑V CPU architectures
• NPU/AI accelerator subsystems
• AMBA-based interconnect architectures
• Memory and cache subsystems
• Platform security and Root‑of‑Trust technologies
• Author architecture specifications, programming guides, and technical documentation.
• Define comprehensive validation strategies and work closely with verification teams to ensure successful implementation.
• Drive invention disclosures and patent filings for innovative technologies.
• Support post‑silicon bring‑up, silicon debug, and customer enablement activities.

Qualifications

Required

• Master's degree with 10+ years of industry experience, or Ph.D. with 5+ years of relevant experience in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• Strong experience in SoC integration, architecture development, and RTL design using Verilog, SystemVerilog, and/or SystemC.
• Proven track record of architecting and delivering complex SoC or ASIC products from concept to production.
• Experience leading cross‑functional engineering teams through architecture definition, implementation, and validation.
• Strong understanding of hardware/software co‑design principles.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
• Demonstrated problem‑solving, innovation, and technical leadership capabilities.

Preferred

• Experience with ARM and/or RISC‑V CPU subsystem architecture.
• Knowledge of AI/ML accelerator architectures
• Familiarity with memory hierarchies, cache architectures, and high‑performance interconnects.
• Strong understanding of AMBA protocols and SoC connectivity fabrics.
• Experience with platform security technologies, including Root of Trust, OpenTitan, encryption technologies, and access control mechanisms.
• Experience in performance modeling, workload characterization, and system‑level optimization.