Torchora
Back to Home

Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for GPU Architecture Engineer

💰 $150,000 - $250,000+

EngineeringHardwareSemiconductorComputer ArchitectureGPU

🎯 Role Definition

Are you passionate about pushing the boundaries of visual and parallel computing? This role requires a visionary GPU Architecture Engineer to join our world-class team. In this pivotal role, you will be the architect of future GPU technologies, from high-level conceptualization to detailed microarchitectural design. You will be responsible for defining the features, performance characteristics, and power efficiency of our next-generation graphics processors that will power everything from immersive gaming experiences to groundbreaking AI and machine learning advancements. This is a unique opportunity to make a significant impact on the industry and collaborate with a brilliant team of engineers to bring revolutionary products to life.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior RTL Design Engineer
  • Performance Modeling Engineer
  • Graphics or Compute Software Engineer with deep hardware knowledge
  • PhD Graduate in Computer Architecture / Graphics

Advancement To:

  • Principal GPU Architect
  • Director of Architecture
  • Senior Manager, GPU Architecture
  • Distinguished Engineer / Technical Fellow

Lateral Moves:

  • SoC Performance Architect
  • GPU Verification Architect
  • Senior Graphics API Software Engineer

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Define and develop the microarchitecture for next-generation GPU cores, memory subsystems, and other processing units, ensuring they meet aggressive performance, power, and area (PPA) targets.
  • Author detailed architectural and microarchitectural specification documents that guide the RTL design, verification, and software development teams.
  • Create and utilize sophisticated performance models in C++ or other simulation environments to project GPU performance, identify bottlenecks, and validate architectural concepts.
  • Conduct in-depth analysis and trade-off studies of different architectural approaches, considering their impact on the entire system, from hardware implementation to software programmability.
  • Collaborate closely with software teams to ensure new hardware features are efficiently exposed and utilized by graphics APIs (Vulkan, DirectX), compute APIs (CUDA, OpenCL), and driver software.
  • Research and innovate on novel graphics and compute algorithms, such as advanced ray tracing techniques, machine learning acceleration, and new shading paradigms.
  • Drive the architectural definition for critical GPU subsystems, including texture units, rasterizers, command processors, caches, and memory controllers.
  • Work with physical design teams to understand the implementation challenges and constraints, ensuring the architecture is physically realizable within the target technology node.
  • Develop and own performance, power, and area models, continuously refining them with data from pre-silicon and post-silicon analysis.
  • Profile and analyze the performance of key applications, games, and benchmarks on simulators, emulators, and early silicon to identify areas for architectural improvement.
  • Lead architectural investigations into complex performance and functional issues found during simulation, emulation, and post-silicon validation.
  • Propose and champion new architectural features by providing clear, data-driven evidence of their value and leading cross-functional feasibility studies.
  • Define the instruction set architecture (ISA) for various GPU functional blocks, ensuring forward and backward compatibility where required.
  • Guide and mentor verification teams on creating comprehensive test plans and functional coverage models based on the architectural specification.
  • Engage in forward-looking research to anticipate industry trends and define the long-term strategic roadmap for GPU architecture.
  • Develop novel solutions to improve the power efficiency of the GPU through techniques like clock gating, power gating, and dynamic voltage/frequency scaling (DVFS).
  • Analyze competitive GPU architectures to understand their strengths and weaknesses, ensuring our designs maintain a competitive edge.
  • Define and specify debug and performance monitoring hooks within the hardware to aid post-silicon bring-up, validation, and performance tuning.
  • Collaborate with system architects to ensure the GPU architecture integrates seamlessly within the larger SoC and system-level environment.
  • Present architectural plans, analysis results, and strategic recommendations to senior management and technical leadership.

Secondary Functions

  • Engage in academic and industry research to stay ahead of future trends in graphics, AI, and high-performance computing.
  • Mentor junior engineers, providing technical guidance and contributing to the team's overall skill development.
  • Contribute to the company's intellectual property portfolio by documenting novel inventions and supporting the patent application process.
  • Assist in the development and refinement of the team's architectural modeling, analysis methodologies, and toolchains.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Deep understanding of modern GPU architectures, including shader cores, texture mapping units (TMUs), ROPs, and memory hierarchies.
  • Expertise in computer architecture fundamentals, such as pipelining, caching, virtual memory, and parallel processing.
  • Strong programming skills, particularly in C++ for performance modeling, and proficiency in scripting languages like Python or Perl.
  • Experience with graphics APIs (e.g., DirectX, Vulkan, OpenGL) and compute APIs (e.g., CUDA, OpenCL).
  • Knowledge of hardware description languages such as Verilog, SystemVerilog, or VHDL.
  • Proven experience in performance analysis, bottleneck identification, and workload characterization.
  • Familiarity with RTL design, verification methodologies (like UVM), and physical design flows.
  • Ability to analyze and make complex trade-offs between performance, power, and area (PPA).
  • Experience with architectural simulators, performance counters, and other hardware-level analysis tools.
  • Understanding of machine learning concepts and their acceleration on GPU hardware.

Soft Skills

  • Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills with a high degree of attention to detail.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
  • Strong collaborative mindset and ability to work effectively in a cross-functional team environment.
  • Self-motivated and driven, with a passion for learning and innovation.
  • Leadership and mentoring capabilities to guide junior engineers and influence technical direction.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's Degree in a relevant technical field.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's Degree or PhD.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Computer Engineering
  • Electrical Engineering

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 5-15+ years of relevant industry experience.

Preferred:

  • Demonstrated experience in a senior or lead role defining microarchitecture for complex hardware units, preferably within a GPU, CPU, or similar high-performance processor. A proven track record of contributing to the architecture of one or more shipped products is highly desirable.
Explore More Careers