ASIC Design Engineering Lead - SoC IP DMA
Oct 8, 2026 Sunnyvale, CA
About us
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- Size: 10,000+ employees
- Industry: Technology: Manufacturing
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In this highly visible, hands-on role, you will lead a team of engineers at the center of Apple's SOC IP DMA design effort. Balancing equal parts people management and technical leadership, you will guide your team through the full front-end design cycle, including microarchitecture, RTL delivery, and debug. Your leadership will ensure silicon-ready quality while fostering a culture of teamwork and collaboration, continuous learning, and engineering excellence. Your work will have direct impact on products used by millions of people worldwide.
Description
As a hands-on ASIC Design Engineering Lead, you will split your time equally between leading your team and contributing directly as a technical contributor. You will:
- Work closely with the platform architecture team to understand and refine architectural requirements
Lead your team to define and document the micro-architecture
- Provide high-level technical guidance, drive micro-architectural decisions, review team members' work and provide feedback, and ensure quality and across the team's design work
- Actively drive the development of design infrastructure, automation, and strategic use of AI and other emerging tools
- Be hands-on with the all activities of the team, e.g. micro-architecture, RTL design, verification strategy, debug, and infrastructure development
- Scope features, generate effort, area, and power estimates, and create bottoms-up project schedules and resourcing plans.
- Partner with architecture, IP integration, chip integration, design verification, and formal verification teams to align on plans, milestones, and deliverables
- Track execution, surface and resolve risks early, and communicate clearly to management and stakeholders
- Lead, mentor, and grow a team of engineers; actively invest in each person's technical and professional development
- Build a team culture grounded in teamwork and collaboration, intellectual honesty, design/idea sharing, and a genuine growth mindset
- Manage interpersonal dynamics thoughtfully and cultivate strong relationships within the team and with cross-functional teams
Preferred Qualifications
10+ years of hands-on experience in front-end ASIC design
Experience in technical leadership: accountable for multi-person deliverables, setting technical direction, and interfacing effectively with management and cross-functional partners.
Experience managing people on a team strongly desired
Outstanding written and verbal communication skills and cross-functional collaboration instincts
Excellent project planning and execution skills: bottom-up scheduling, effort, area, and power estimation, milestone planning and execution, and resource management
Solid understanding of SoC architecture and high performance designs particularly for high speed networking, AI/ML compute, image and video processing, and/or memory subsystems
Understanding of design concepts including arbitration, flow control, address translation, caching, bandwidth, pipelining, real time quality-of-service, and AMBA protocols, (AXI, APB, etc.).
Understanding of low-power design techniques including clock gating, power gating, and logic depth; Understanding of timing optimization and high-frequency design
Track record of driving innovation through building tools, infrastructure, and automation, and strategic use of emerging technologies including AI.
Formal verification experience a plus
Minimum Qualifications
BS and a minimum of 20 years relevant industry experience
Pay & Benefits
At Apple, base pay is one part of our total compensation package and is determined within a range. This provides the opportunity to progress as you grow and develop within a role. The base pay range for this role is between $216,200 and $394,000, and your base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.
Apple employees also have the opportunity to become an Apple shareholder through participation in Apple's discretionary employee stock programs. Apple employees are eligible for discretionary restricted stock unit awards, and can purchase Apple stock at a discount if voluntarily participating in Apple's Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You'll also receive benefits including: Comprehensive medical and dental coverage, retirement benefits, a range of discounted products and free services, and for formal education related to advancing your career at Apple, reimbursement for certain educational expenses - including tuition. Additionally, this role might be eligible for discretionary bonuses or commission payments as well as relocation. Learn more about Apple Benefits
Note: Apple benefit, compensation and employee stock programs are subject to eligibility requirements and other terms of the applicable plan or program.
Description
As a hands-on ASIC Design Engineering Lead, you will split your time equally between leading your team and contributing directly as a technical contributor. You will:
- Work closely with the platform architecture team to understand and refine architectural requirements
Lead your team to define and document the micro-architecture
- Provide high-level technical guidance, drive micro-architectural decisions, review team members' work and provide feedback, and ensure quality and across the team's design work
- Actively drive the development of design infrastructure, automation, and strategic use of AI and other emerging tools
- Be hands-on with the all activities of the team, e.g. micro-architecture, RTL design, verification strategy, debug, and infrastructure development
- Scope features, generate effort, area, and power estimates, and create bottoms-up project schedules and resourcing plans.
- Partner with architecture, IP integration, chip integration, design verification, and formal verification teams to align on plans, milestones, and deliverables
- Track execution, surface and resolve risks early, and communicate clearly to management and stakeholders
- Lead, mentor, and grow a team of engineers; actively invest in each person's technical and professional development
- Build a team culture grounded in teamwork and collaboration, intellectual honesty, design/idea sharing, and a genuine growth mindset
- Manage interpersonal dynamics thoughtfully and cultivate strong relationships within the team and with cross-functional teams
Preferred Qualifications
10+ years of hands-on experience in front-end ASIC design
Experience in technical leadership: accountable for multi-person deliverables, setting technical direction, and interfacing effectively with management and cross-functional partners.
Experience managing people on a team strongly desired
Outstanding written and verbal communication skills and cross-functional collaboration instincts
Excellent project planning and execution skills: bottom-up scheduling, effort, area, and power estimation, milestone planning and execution, and resource management
Solid understanding of SoC architecture and high performance designs particularly for high speed networking, AI/ML compute, image and video processing, and/or memory subsystems
Understanding of design concepts including arbitration, flow control, address translation, caching, bandwidth, pipelining, real time quality-of-service, and AMBA protocols, (AXI, APB, etc.).
Understanding of low-power design techniques including clock gating, power gating, and logic depth; Understanding of timing optimization and high-frequency design
Track record of driving innovation through building tools, infrastructure, and automation, and strategic use of emerging technologies including AI.
Formal verification experience a plus
Minimum Qualifications
BS and a minimum of 20 years relevant industry experience
Pay & Benefits
At Apple, base pay is one part of our total compensation package and is determined within a range. This provides the opportunity to progress as you grow and develop within a role. The base pay range for this role is between $216,200 and $394,000, and your base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.
Apple employees also have the opportunity to become an Apple shareholder through participation in Apple's discretionary employee stock programs. Apple employees are eligible for discretionary restricted stock unit awards, and can purchase Apple stock at a discount if voluntarily participating in Apple's Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You'll also receive benefits including: Comprehensive medical and dental coverage, retirement benefits, a range of discounted products and free services, and for formal education related to advancing your career at Apple, reimbursement for certain educational expenses - including tuition. Additionally, this role might be eligible for discretionary bonuses or commission payments as well as relocation. Learn more about Apple Benefits
Note: Apple benefit, compensation and employee stock programs are subject to eligibility requirements and other terms of the applicable plan or program.
Additional Information
- Salary: $216,200 – $394,000
- Posted: Oct 8, 2026