Founding Semiconductor Design Engineer

About the role

We are looking for a visionary and hands‑on founding Semiconductor Design Engineer to join Nelix Chip Design, an early‑stage fabless company building sovereign AI compute and trusted silicon platforms. The role is remote and initially part‑time, expanding as the company secures funding.

Key responsibilities

• Define MCU, SoC and edge‑accelerator architectures.
• Develop and review RTL using SystemVerilog, Verilog or VHDL.
• Integrate RISC‑V, ARM or other processor and peripheral IP.
• Design memory, communication, security and power‑management subsystems.
• Support FPGA prototyping and architecture validation.
• Create verification environments, test plans and coverage strategies.
• Evaluate third‑party IP, EDA tools, process technologies and foundry options.
• Assist with synthesis, timing analysis, power estimation and physical‑design handoff.
• Design secure boot, hardware root‑of‑trust, PUF, attestation and tamper‑resistance features.
• Contribute to technical proposals, product roadmaps, pilot programs and investor discussions.
• Help build and mentor the future semiconductor engineering team.

Required profile

• Experience in digital IC, ASIC, FPGA, MCU or SoC design.
• Background in RTL development and functional verification.
• Familiarity with embedded processors (RISC‑V or ARM‑based).
• Knowledge of low‑power, power‑aware design techniques.
• Understanding of hardware security and trusted computing concepts.
• Bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree in electrical/computer engineering, microelectronics or related field (preferred but not mandatory).
• Demonstrated ability to take a semiconductor product from architecture through silicon bring‑up.

Required skills

• SystemVerilog, Verilog, VHDL
• RTL development
• RISC‑V and ARM processor integration
• FPGA prototyping
• Verification environment creation
• Synthesis and static timing analysis
• Power estimation
• Physical‑design handoff
• Secure boot and hardware root‑of‑trust design
• Physical Unclonable Functions (PUF)
• Hardware tamper‑resistance techniques