Hardware Tools Engineer

What MatX is Building

MatX's mission is to make the world's best AI models run as efficiently as allowed by physics, bringing the world years ahead in AI quality and availability. We build the full stack, from silicon and rack design through compilers, kernels, and ML models.

Most of our chip is written in Bluespec, a high-level hardware description language, and the Bluespec compiler turns it into Verilog. Our architects write executable models in Rust, and our verification engineers check the RTL with simulation and formal methods. The Hardware Tools team owns the Bluespec compiler, our hardware libraries, and the tools that connect them.

The team's customers are MatX's own engineers in Architecture, Design, Design Verification, and Formal Verification. Every change we make to the language, the compiler, or our tools has to make one of those teams faster or help them find problems earlier. You will learn what each team needs by working with them directly, and your work will be measured by its effect on their schedules.

You will be working in an existing system, not starting one. The Bluespec compiler is a mature open-source Haskell codebase with MatX extensions, and our engineers use it every day on a chip we are taping out. Changes have to be safe for that tapeout while we build what the next chip needs.

This role builds the language and tools that MatX's architects, designers, and verification engineers use every day.

What You'll Do Here:

• The areas below are where the work starts today. The hardware teams' needs change from one chip to the next, and we expect you to help decide what the team builds next

  • Work with the hardware teams: Find out where architects, designers, and verification engineers spend their time, and decide with them what to build. A tool is finished when the engineers it was built for are using it and you can show what it changed for them

  • Evolve the language and the compiler: Improve Bluespec, its type system, its libraries, and its compiler so that hardware is faster to write, faster to build, and easier to change late in a project. Current examples include compile speed, stable and reproducible output, and language features that catch design errors earlier

  • Connect design and verification: Build tools that make what the compiler knows about a design available to simulation and formal verification. Current examples include assertions written in Bluespec, checks and formal assumptions generated by the compiler, and flows that check Rust reference models against the RTL

  • Improve the developer experience: Build the debugging, editor, and build tools that make hardware engineers more productive. Own testing and releases of the compiler and libraries so that a new release never breaks a team's build

  • Fix the cause: When an engineer hits a problem, fix it in the compiler, the library, or the shared flow so that nobody hits it again. Contribute fixes and features that belong in the open-source compiler upstream

Who You Are:

• Senior-level self-direction: You can take an ambiguous request from another team, work out the underlying problem, and drive it to a shipped tool without close supervision

• Strong Haskell: You can write, debug, and profile production Haskell in a large codebase. The Bluespec compiler is written in Haskell and you will be changing it. Prior knowledge of GHC internals is not required

• Strong Rust: You write production Rust. Our hardware libraries, code generators, simulators, and reference models are written in Rust

• You can read RTL: You can read Bluespec, Verilog, or SystemVerilog well enough to understand what the compiler produced and why a design, test, or proof behaves the way it does. Hardware design experience is helpful but not required

• You build for other engineers: You have built tools that other engineers depend on, and you have changed them based on what those engineers told you. You are comfortable with Python, build systems (Bazel preferred), and CI

• On-site or remote: You would work with teams across MatX, and the role can be based in our Mountain View, CA office or remote

• Occasional travel: Expect a few trips a year to meet the teams you work with in person

Bonus Points If You Have:

• Experience building a compiler, or verifying one through translation validation, a verified compiler such as CompCert or CakeML, or systematic compiler testing and fuzzing

• Contributions to bsc, GHC, rustc, or another production compiler

• Experience with Bluespec (BH or BSV), Chisel, Clash, or another high-level hardware language

• Experience with hardware verification: SystemVerilog Assertions, simulation testbenches, or model checking with JasperGold, VC Formal, or SymbiYosys

• Experience with interactive theorem provers (Isabelle/HOL, Lean, Rocq), mechanized hardware semantics (Kami, Koika), or semantics frameworks (K, Sail, Ott)

• Experience with SAT or SMT solvers inside a type checker or another compiler pass

• Experience with language servers, debuggers, or waveform tools

• Open-source hardware tools and their internals: Yosys, Verilator, or SymbiYosys

Compensation

The US base salary for this full-time position is determined based on a variety of factors including role, experience, location, job-related skills, and relevant education and training. Career length is only a guideline for compensation.

• Early Career - $160,000 - $275,000 + equity

• Mid Career - $175,000 - $400,000 + equity

• Senior Career - $250,000 - $600,000 + equity

What We Offer

• Time off: 4 weeks PTO (accrued) + 12 company Holidays + up to 3 weeks remote work

• Health: Company-subsidized Medical (Kaiser or Anthem) for employees & dependents, Guardian Dental and Vision insurances for employee & dependents, and life insurance (employee only), plus HSA and FSA offerings via Lively.

• Financial Security: Choose from Roth or pre-tax 401K (or both) with a 5% company contribution (even if you don't contribute), 100% company-paid life insurance (up to $300K), long-term disability and travel insurance.

• Professional Development: $1500 per year Professional Development Budget

• Team Meals: MatX provides onsite team lunch & dinner Monday - Friday, with your choice of ordering via WeBox, Specialty’s or via our reimbursement system

• Commute on Us: We pay 100% for your daily commute. Commute via our company rideshare account, reimburse public transportation, or get a Fasttrak card (or all three)

• MatX E[x]tras: $50/mo to use on the perk you value most

• Cell & Internet Reimbursement: $35/mo for cellular and $40/mo for wifi

• Remote Home Setup: Use our Amazon business account for up to $1000 in office setup purchases.

• Mental Wellbeing: 100% paid mental health benefit via SpringHealth and Guardian EAP.

• Support to Parents: Up to 12 weeks paid parental leave regardless of path to parenthood, 10 weeks pregnancy disability leave, flexible return-to-work hours, and a $6K Family Fund to cover fertility, surrogacy, adoption, menopausal health, preservation, family counseling and more.

As part of our dedication to the diversity of our team and our focus on creating an inviting and inclusive work experience, MatX is committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and will not discriminate against an applicant or employee on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital/domestic partner status, military and veteran status, genetic information or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state or local laws, regulations or ordinances.

This position requires access to information that is subject to U.S. export controls. This offer of employment is contingent upon the applicant's capacity to perform job functions in compliance with U.S. export control laws without obtaining a license from U.S. export control authorities.