Sr. Staff Engineer - Power Lead, Systems Architecture

Job Summary

We are seeking a Sr. Staff Power Lead Systems Architecture to lead system-level power architecture, analysis, modeling, projection, optimization, and issue closure for complex SoCs and platforms. This is a systems architecture role, not a narrowly scoped circuit-power or physical-design position.

The successful candidate will define and assess system power states, power islands, operating points, workload scenarios, data movement, shared-resource policies, and power-performance-thermal trade-offs. The role will establish traceability from product use cases and architecture assumptions through pre-silicon estimates, design evidence, post-silicon measurements, correlation, and next-generation improvements.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead system power architecture for target SoCs and platforms from concept development through architecture freeze, design convergence, pre-silicon readiness, post-silicon characterization, and learning closure.
• Translate product requirements, use cases, workload behavior, concurrency, duty cycles, thermal constraints, and performance KPIs into system-level power requirements and architecture decisions.
• Define and analyze system power states, power islands, retention strategies, clock- and power-gating behavior, wake/sleep flows, operating points, DVFS policies, and cross-IP power-management interactions.
• Establish top-down system power budgets and projections and work with IP teams to decompose targets, assumptions, modes, activity profiles, and optimization requirements.
• Develop or guide workload-driven analytical, simulation, empirical, or hybrid models for power and performance projection.
• Evaluate architectural options across power, performance, thermal behavior, area, latency, responsiveness, complexity, risk, and user-experience objectives.
• Perform workload, use-case, concurrency, utilization, traffic, and data-movement analysis to identify system-level optimization opportunities.
• Drive cross-IP power optimization involving compute, memory, interconnect, multimedia, connectivity, peripherals, system infrastructure, firmware, and software policies.
• Track gaps between targets and projections; lead technical investigations, root-cause analysis, mitigation planning, risk assessment, and issue closure.
• Integrate IP-level models and implementation evidence into coherent system projections while making assumptions, model fidelity, uncertainty, and confidence ranges explicit.
• Define architecture validation and measurement requirements so that pre-silicon hypotheses can be verified on emulation, prototypes, boards, and production silicon.
• Correlate pre-silicon models and estimates with post-silicon rail, workload, telemetry, and performance measurements; explain material variances and feed calibrated models and architecture actions into subsequent products.
• Partner with SoC architecture, performance/modeling, IP architecture, RTL design, DV, physical design, firmware, software, thermal, validation, lab, and silicon teams.
• Communicate system power status, trade-offs, risks, recommendations, and closure plans to technical and program stakeholders.
• Develop reusable power-architecture methods, workload definitions, model standards, projection practices, dashboards, and review criteria.

Minimum/Basic Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Engineering, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field and 10+ years of Systems Engineering, SoC Architecture, Power Architecture, Performance/Power Analysis, or related experience; or
• Masters degree in a related field and 8+ years of relevant experience; or
• PhD in a related field and 5+ years of relevant experience.
• Approximately 10+ years of relevant industry experience is preferred.
• Strong understanding of SoC and computer architecture, including compute subsystems, memory hierarchy, interconnects, system infrastructure, I/O, clock/reset, and HW/SW interaction.
• Experience in system power architecture, workload-based power analysis, power-performance analysis, system modeling, projection, optimization, or post-silicon power characterization.
• Ability to reason about dynamic and leakage power, operating modes, utilization, duty cycle, voltage/frequency operating points, concurrency, and thermal or sustained-performance effects.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional technical investigations and convert analysis into architecture or optimization decisions.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, technical-communication, and stakeholder-leadership skills.

Preferred Qualifications and Domain Expertise

• Experience defining SoC or subsystem power states, islands, low-power modes, sleep/idle behavior, wake-up paths, retention, power gating, clock gating, or DVFS.
• Experience with representative CPU, GPU, DSP, NPU/AI, memory, interconnect, multimedia, connectivity, peripheral, or full-platform workloads.
• Hands-on experience with power/performance modeling, sensitivity analysis, projection, workload characterization, trace analysis, scripting, or large-data analysis.
• Experience correlating architecture models and pre-silicon estimates with post-silicon measurements and driving variance root cause and model calibration.
• Familiarity with rail-level power measurements, silicon telemetry, performance counters, profiling, lab measurement methods, board bring-up, or system debugging.
• Working knowledge of RTL/gate-level power inputs, activity factors, leakage/dynamic splits, corners, implementation data, or power-estimation tools.
• Awareness of UPF/CPF, power-domain crossings, isolation, level shifting, retention, structural low-power verification, synthesis, timing, or physical-design power considerations.
• Understanding of PMICs, regulators, power rails, PDN/power-grid considerations, thermal management, and their relationship to SoC operating policy.
• Familiarity with Linux/Android, firmware, device drivers, system traces, power-management software, or Python/shell-based automation.
• Prior SoC architecture, subsystem architecture, IP microarchitecture, design, validation, or silicon-debug experience.
• Demonstrated technical leadership across distributed teams, including the ability to align stakeholders and influence decisions without direct authority.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 6+ years of Systems Engineering or related work experience.
• Master's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 5+ years of Systems Engineering or related work experience.
• PhD in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field and 4+ years of Systems Engineering or related work experience.