Principal CPU Architect

About the role

You will serve as a principal architect at a semiconductor company, setting the technical direction for CPU development across multiple product generations and market segments. Principal architects define what the organization builds next: the ISA strategy, the microarchitecture roadmap, the methodology standards, and the performance commitments the business plans around. Your judgment will shape silicon that ships years from now, determine the company's competitive position in its markets, and influence the careers of dozens of architects who look to you for technical leadership.

What you will achieve

• Define the multi-generation CPU architecture roadmap, aligning ISA evolution, microarchitecture investments, process technology assumptions, and product requirements into a single coherent plan the organization can execute with confidence.
• Set the performance, power, and area targets for new CPU programs and defend them rigorously with modeling, competitive analysis, workload projections, and risk assessment.
• Originate breakthrough microarchitecture concepts capable of delivering step-function gains, and shepherd the most promising from early research through funding, prototyping, and adoption into product programs.
• Establish the architecture methodologies, modeling standards, review processes, and documentation norms used by every CPU team in the organization, raising quality and consistency everywhere.
• Advise executive leadership on the highest-stakes technology bets such as ISA transitions, chiplet strategies, or accelerator integration, providing clear-eyed assessments of technical risk, reward, and timing.
• Build the next generation of architectural leaders through deliberate mentorship, strategic hiring, and technical leadership that compounds in value across the organization over time.

What you will bring

Must-haves

• 12 or more years of experience in CPU architecture with multiple shipped high-performance processors across product generations and market segments.
• Demonstrated ability to set technical direction that an organization of dozens of engineers executes against successfully, including managing disagreement and building alignment.
• Mastery of the full CPU design stack from ISA definition through microarchitecture, RTL implementation, physical design, and silicon validation.
• Strong competitive and workload analysis skills spanning client, datacenter, mobile, or embedded markets with the ability to translate findings into strategy.
• Exceptional communication skills for influencing executives, customers, partners, and engineering teams on complex technical strategy.
• A record of meaningful innovation visible in patents, publications, invited talks, or industry-defining products.
• Experience navigating major technology transitions such as ISA changes, new process paradigms, or shifts in computing models.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with chiplet-based designs, advanced packaging strategies, or heterogeneous integration.
• Background spanning both CPU architecture and full system-level or SoC architecture.
• Established relationships across the industry ecosystem including foundries, IP vendors, EDA companies, and software partners.