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Chip Simulation Software Engineer

etched

OnSite San Jose
Development

Job Score

80 pts
On-site model (+70) Development (+10)

About Etched

Etched is building hardware for frontier intelligence. We co-design chips, racks, software, and manufacturing to deliver best-in-class throughput and latency across both prefill and decode workloads. Our first products are heavily focused on inference. Backed by hundreds of millions from top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Etched is redefining the infrastructure layer for the fastest growing industry in history.

Job Summary

We are seeking highly motivated and detail-oriented software engineers to join our chip simulation team. We’re building custom AI inference chips that leverage tight hardware-software co-design to deliver world-best performance. The chip simulation team plays a key role in hardware-software co-design, enabling early development of the full software stack. As an engineer on this team, you will design, develop, and test simulations of our custom hardware. You will be working at the cutting edge of hardware innovation.

Key responsibilities

  • Design, develop, and maintain simulations of our hardware. Ensuring high levels of accuracy, efficient debugging, and optimal performance.

  • Influence architectural decisions through review and co-design

  • Create and maintain test plans, work with hardware teams to validate their documentation.

  • Build tools to debug simulations, and enable developers to debug software running on the simulator.

You may be a good fit if you have

  • Proficiency in C/C++

  • Strong understanding of low-level software engineering.

  • Strong understanding of hardware engineering.

  • Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Strong candidates may also have experience with (Nice-to-have qualifications)

  • Experience developing hardware or system simulations (e.g., SystemC, gem5, QEMU, or custom frameworks).

  • Experience with custom ML hardware accelerators (e.g., Google TPU)

  • Experience with firmware, kernel and driver development (e.g., Linux, FreeRTOS)

  • Experience with hardware development and verification.

  • Experience with multiprocessing and multithreading.

  • Familiarity with bit-accurate numerics modeling.

  • Experience with performance profiling and optimization of simulation code

  • Proficiency with Python for test harness development, bazel, and git.

Representative projects

  • Implement a simulation of our on-chip modules.

  • Integrate simulated chips with simulated hosts (QEMU), enabling Kernel driver development and host software testing.

  • Integrate multiple simulated chips to validate multi-chip software scale-out and scale-up approaches.

  • Work closely with our software teams in debugging early software deliverables.

Benefits

  • Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage

    • $500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits

  • Housing subsidy of $2k per month for those living within walking distance of the office

  • Relocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)

  • Various wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more

  • Daily lunch + dinner in our office

  • Unlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification

How we’re different

Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We are the first inference-focused frontier AI system. Our addressable market is the entirety of inference, unlike many of our competitors.

 

We are a fully in-person team in San Jose (Santana Row), 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 and work across disciplines as needed.

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About Software Development

Software Development is one of the most dynamic and constantly evolving fields in the job market. Professionals in this area are responsible for creating, maintaining, and optimizing web, mobile, and desktop applications that impact millions of users daily.

Key languages and frameworks include JavaScript (React, Node.js, Vue.js), Python (Django, Flask), Java (Spring), PHP (Laravel), and TypeScript. Demand for full-stack developers continues to grow, especially in tech companies and startups.

Salaries range from entry-level to senior positions, with growing opportunities for remote work and international freelancing.

Discover Other Areas

Understand the scope of work, key skills, and tools used in different career areas.

About Backend

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DevOps engineers and SREs are highly sought-after professionals, with salaries among the highest in the technology sector.

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Tech & Remote Glossary

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🏢 Work Models & Routine

Async (Asynchronous Work)
A communication model where responses don't need to be immediate. Instead of back-to-back meetings, the team relies on well-structured documents, threads, and messages. It's the gold standard for global companies spanning multiple time zones.
Sync (Synchronous Work)
The opposite of Async. It requires the team to be online and available at the same time for meetings, live chats, and real-time collaboration.
Daily / Stand-up
A quick daily meeting (usually 15 minutes) common in Agile (Scrum) methodologies. The team answers three questions: What did I do yesterday? What will I do today? Are there any blockers?
All-Hands / Town Hall
A company-wide meeting involving all employees. Usually led by the founders (C-Levels) to present results, new goals, and answer team questions.
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A recurring individual meeting between a professional and their direct manager. It is used for career alignment, feedback, and problem-solving, not just for project status updates.

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Instead of strict, categorized leave policies, modern US companies usually offer a flexible pool of days (e.g., 20 days of PTO, or even "Unlimited PTO") that you can use for vacations, sick days, or personal matters, while receiving your regular compensation.
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Company ownership. The startup offers you the right to buy shares at a heavily discounted strike price in the future. If the company grows, goes public, or is acquired, these shares can be highly lucrative.
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The rule that controls your Equity. It usually lasts 4 years. You don't get all the shares on day one; you "earn" them gradually as you stay with the company. A "1-year Cliff" means you must stay for at least one year to receive your first batch of shares.
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The document that lists the responsibilities, technical requirements, and benefits of the open position.
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The interview stage that evaluates if your core values, communication style, and worldview align with the company's culture. This is the ultimate test of your Soft Skills.
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The integration process. It's the period of your first few weeks at the company, where you get your access credentials, learn about the culture, study the internal documentation, and understand how the product works.

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Expert Tip

Data-Driven: How Data Defines Company Success or Failure

The Data-Driven Era: How Data Culture Defines Company Success or Failure

Published by Mondywork | Category: Data / Business Intelligence

The End of Corporate Gut Feeling

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"Data-driven organizations are 23 times more likely to acquire customers, six times as likely to retain those customers, and 19 times as likely to be profitable as a result."
— McKinsey Global Institute Study

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Being Data-Driven doesn't just mean subscribing to expensive Analytics tools or having a beautiful dashboard on the office wall. It's a fundamental shift in organizational culture, where truth is sought in the numbers before any action is executed.

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References and Recommended Reading

  • McKinsey & Company: The data-driven enterprise of 2025.
  • Harvard Business Review: How to Build a Data-Driven Culture.
  • Gartner: Top Trends in Data and Analytics.

Master the art of turning data into revenue?

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