Lead Architect, Custom Silicon

About GlobalFoundries 

GlobalFoundries is a leading full-service semiconductor foundry providing a unique combination of design, development, and fabrication services to some of the world’s most inspired technology companies. With a global manufacturing footprint spanning three continents, GlobalFoundries makes possible the technologies and systems that transform industries and give customers the power to shape their markets. For more information, visit www.gf.com. 

Introduction:  

The Custom Silicon Lead Architect is responsible for defining and driving the architecture of next-generation custom silicon solutions, including complex ASICs and SoCs. This role requires cross-disciplinary collaboration with design, verification, hardware, firmware, and software teams to deliver high-performance, innovative, and reliable custom silicon products. 

Your Job:  

• Define and own the architecture and technical specifications for custom silicon products from concept through tape-out. 

• Lead requirement gathering, trade-off analysis, partitioning, and high-level design, optimizing for performance, power, area, scalability, and cost. 

• Guide the design and integration of major IP blocks, processing subsystems, memory and I/O, high-speed interfaces, and custom accelerators. 

• Collaborate with stakeholders (systems, product management, software, and firmware) to align architectural vision and feature sets with market and product needs. 

• Oversee architectural execution to ensure design aligns with specifications and architectural intent. 

• Investigate, evaluate, and integrate third-party IP and develop strategies for architecture validation, bring-up, and post-silicon debug. 

• Mentor and provide technical leadership to cross-functional engineering teams 

• Present technical concepts and progress to internal teams, management, and external partners. 

Other Responsibilities:  

• Ensure security, safety, and system-level design compliance in architecture, adhering to relevant standards (e.g., ISO 26262, IEC 61508). 

Required Qualifications:  

• Deep experience architecting custom silicon, ASIC, or SoC designs (digital/mixed-signal). 

• Expertise in hardware system partitioning, IP integration, interconnect protocols, memory hierarchies, and clock/power domain management. 

• Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering or related field 

• Strong knowledge of top-down architecture flows, performance modeling, EDA tools, and verification strategies. 

• Familiarity with multi-discipline integration, including analog, RF, and software/firmware/hardware interfaces. 

• Thorough understanding of modern interface standards (AXI, PCIe, DDR/LpDDR, MIPI, USB, etc.). 

• Excellent problem-solving, debugging, and system-level thinking skills. 

• Strong communication, technical writing, and project leadership skills. 

Preferred Qualifications:  

• 15+ years of experience in custom silicon, ASIC, or SoC development with a track record of leading Architecture. 

• Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering or related field 

• Demonstrated project leadership in multi-site or cross-disciplinary environments. 

• Experience in domains such as Physical AI, automotive, networking, storage, security, or advanced compute. 

• Involvement in strategic planning, IP/vendor evaluations, and cross-functional technical reviews. 

• History of patents, publications, or industry engagement is a plus.