New opportunity

Microarchitecture and Design Engineer - AI SoC

Intel · Bangalore, India

About this role

Intel's AI SoC organization is seeking a Microarchitecture and Design Engineer to contribute to the development of cutting-edge hardware powering AI applications from edge devices to data center accelerators. This role involves designing and developing next-generation silicon technologies at the heart of Intel's product development process. Key Responsibilities: Develop logic design, RTL coding, and simulation for SoC designs. Define and implement architecture and microarchitecture features for logic blocks. Perform quality checks across RTL, timing, power, and design integrity to meet performance goals. Optimize RTL logic to ensure compliance with power, performance, area, and timing targets. Collaborate with IP providers to integrate and validate IPs at the SoC level. Review and contribute to verification plans and ensure design features are comprehensively tested. Identify and resolve RTL test failures to ensure feature correctness. Employ secure development practices to address security objectives and threats in the design. Drive quality assurance compliance for seamless IP and SoC handoff throughout the design flow. Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field with 3+ years of experience. Expertise in microarchitecture, RTL design, coding, and simulation using SystemVerilog. Strong knowledge of system-level design principles, including power, performance, and area optimization. Demonstrated experience with timing/power convergence methodologies and tools. Preferred Qualifications: Experience with SoC architecture and microarchitecture. Understanding of AI models and how they shape AI hardware architectures. Proficiency in clock domain crossing analysis and implementation techniques. Hands-on experience with quality assurance practices and secure development in logic design. Proven ability to communicate across multidisciplinary teams and deliver high-quality designs under tight deadlines.

For full details about this role, click “Apply on company site” to view the employer’s original posting.

Skills for this role

MicroarchitectureRTL DesignSystemVerilogSoC ArchitectureLogic DesignSimulationPower OptimizationPerformance OptimizationArea OptimizationTiming ConvergenceClock Domain CrossingSecure Development

Checking your profile…

Preparation suggestions, not the employer’s actual interview questions. Always check the original posting for current requirements.

Understand the role

What matters most

RTL Design and Logic Implementation
The core responsibility is the development of logic design and RTL coding using SystemVerilog. You must demonstrate proficiency in translating microarchitectural specifications into functional, synthesizable logic blocks that meet strict performance and area requirements.
Power, Performance, and Area (PPA) Optimization
You are expected to manage the trade-offs between power, performance, area, and timing. This requires deep knowledge of system-level design principles and the ability to apply optimization techniques to ensure the design meets its targets throughout the development lifecycle.
SoC Integration and Quality Assurance
The role requires collaborating with IP providers to integrate and validate components at the SoC level. You must drive quality assurance compliance and ensure design integrity through rigorous verification planning and the resolution of RTL test failures.

Likely challenges to think through

Balancing Tight Deadlines with Design Complexity
The role involves working in a fast-paced environment on next-generation AI hardware. The challenge is maintaining high-quality design standards while adhering to aggressive project schedules. Prepare by discussing your experience with disciplined execution and how you prioritize tasks when facing competing technical demands.
Cross-Domain Technical Collaboration
You will need to communicate effectively across multidisciplinary teams and with external IP providers. The difficulty lies in aligning different technical perspectives to ensure seamless IP and SoC handoff. Prepare by highlighting examples of how you have managed technical dependencies and resolved integration conflicts in previous projects.
Security-Aware Design Implementation
Integrating secure development practices into the logic design process is a specific requirement. The challenge is identifying potential security threats early in the microarchitecture phase without compromising performance. Prepare by reviewing common hardware security vulnerabilities and how you incorporate security checks into your standard design flow.

Practice your answers

Technical practice

SystemVerilog RTL Design and Simulation

What to coverDescribe your experience using SystemVerilog for complex logic design. Be prepared to discuss how you structure RTL for simulation efficiency and how you utilize SystemVerilog features like interfaces or assertions to improve design quality.

Power, Performance, and Area (PPA) Optimization

What to coverExplain your methodology for balancing PPA trade-offs in SoC design. Provide examples of how you have identified bottlenecks in a design and the specific RTL or microarchitectural changes you implemented to improve performance or reduce power consumption.

Clock Domain Crossing (CDC) Implementation

What to coverDiscuss the challenges of managing signals across multiple clock domains in a high-speed SoC. Explain the techniques you use for synchronization, such as multi-flop synchronizers or handshaking protocols, and how you verify these paths to prevent metastability.

Timing Convergence Methodologies

What to coverDetail your approach to achieving timing closure in complex designs. Mention the tools you have used and how you address timing violations through RTL restructuring, floorplanning considerations, or logic optimization.

SoC IP Integration and Validation

What to coverDescribe your process for integrating third-party or internal IP blocks into an SoC. Focus on how you ensure interface compatibility, manage signal integrity, and collaborate with IP providers to resolve integration failures.

Secure Development in Hardware Design

What to coverExplain how you incorporate security objectives into the RTL design phase. Discuss common hardware-level threats you consider, such as side-channel attacks or unauthorized access, and the design practices you use to mitigate them.

AI Hardware Architecture Awareness

What to coverDiscuss how specific AI model characteristics, such as data sparsity or precision requirements, influence hardware architecture decisions. Explain how you might optimize a logic block to better support AI-specific workloads.

RTL Debugging and Failure Analysis

What to coverDescribe your systematic approach to identifying and resolving RTL test failures. Explain how you use simulation logs, waveform analysis, and verification testbenches to isolate the root cause of a design bug.

Behavioural practice

Cross-Functional Collaboration

What to coverDescribe a situation where you had to work with a multidisciplinary team to solve a complex design challenge. Focus on how you communicated technical requirements and managed conflicting priorities to reach a successful outcome.

Delivering Under Tight Deadlines

What to coverProvide an example of a project where you faced significant time pressure. Explain how you prioritized your tasks, maintained design quality, and ensured that your deliverables met the project milestones.

Continuous Learning and Adaptation

What to coverShare an example of how you have stayed current with advancements in SoC design methodologies. Explain how you applied this new knowledge to improve a design process or solve a technical problem in your previous role.

Disciplined Execution and Quality Assurance

What to coverDescribe a time when you had to drive quality assurance compliance for a design handoff. Explain the steps you took to ensure the design met all integrity checks and the impact of your diligence on the project's success.

Sharpen your knowledge

Topics to prepare

SoC Power, Performance, and Area (PPA) Optimization
Review fundamental trade-offs in digital design. Exercise: Analyze a specific RTL block and document how changing pipeline depth or resource sharing impacts power consumption versus throughput. This is critical for meeting the role's requirement to optimize logic for PPA targets.
AI Hardware Architecture Fundamentals
Study how AI models (e.g., CNNs, Transformers) influence hardware requirements like memory bandwidth and compute density. Exercise: Map the data flow of a standard matrix multiplication operation to potential hardware acceleration structures. This aligns with the preferred qualification regarding AI model influence on SoC design.
Secure Development in Logic Design
Research common hardware security threats such as side-channel attacks or unauthorized access to debug ports. Exercise: Draft a checklist for RTL design reviews that specifically targets security vulnerabilities. This addresses the explicit responsibility to employ secure development practices.

Skills to revise

SystemVerilog RTL Design and Simulation
Practice writing synthesizable RTL and creating testbenches for verification. Exercise: Implement a complex state machine or a FIFO buffer in SystemVerilog and verify its functionality using a simulation tool. This is a core requirement for the role's daily logic design tasks.
Clock Domain Crossing (CDC) Analysis
Master techniques for safely transferring signals between asynchronous clock domains. Exercise: Identify potential metastability issues in a multi-clock design and implement appropriate synchronizers (e.g., multi-flop or handshake). This is a preferred qualification essential for robust SoC integration.
Timing and Power Convergence Methodologies
Gain familiarity with the design flow from RTL to GDSII. Exercise: Review static timing analysis (STA) reports to identify critical paths and propose RTL-level changes to improve timing margins. This directly supports the requirement for timing/power convergence experience.

Your preparation checklist

Review SystemVerilog RTL Design and Simulation Proficiency
Prepare to discuss your experience with RTL coding and simulation. Be ready to explain how you have used SystemVerilog to implement complex logic blocks, handle testbench development, and resolve simulation failures in previous SoC projects.
Prepare Examples of Power, Performance, and Area (PPA) Optimization
Identify specific instances where you successfully optimized RTL for PPA targets. Be prepared to walk through your methodology for identifying bottlenecks and the specific design trade-offs you made to meet timing and power constraints.
Demonstrate Expertise in Clock Domain Crossing (CDC) and Timing Convergence
Review your experience with CDC analysis and timing closure tools. Prepare to explain your approach to managing asynchronous signals and how you have utilized industry-standard tools to achieve design integrity and timing convergence.
Connect AI Hardware Architectures to Model Requirements
Research how modern AI models influence hardware design requirements. Prepare to discuss how you would approach microarchitecture design for AI accelerators, specifically considering data flow, memory bandwidth, and compute efficiency.
Formulate Questions on Secure Development and IP Integration
Prepare thoughtful questions regarding Intel's secure development practices and the team's workflow for IP integration. Ask about how the team balances security objectives with performance requirements during the design phase.

Availability last checked: 18 Oct 2026. Status can change after a check; confirm on the employer’s website. Report an issue · Our checking policy

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