Director of Software Development R&D - AI

Siemens • Santa Clara, CA

3d • $146,700 - $264,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking a seasoned Director of Software Engineering – Applied AI & Agentic EDA Innovation to help advance Siemens EDA's AI-native vision across the full semiconductor and electronic systems design lifecycle. In this role, you will lead the development and production deployment of industrial-grade generative and agentic AI capabilities that are purpose-built for the unique complexity of EDA—grounded in domain-specific Siemens EDA expertise, trusted design data, secure enterprise infrastructure, and physics-based EDA engines. You will serve as a pivotal technical and organizational leader connecting Siemens EDA product divisions, algorithmic R&D teams, enterprise customers, foundry partners, and ecosystem collaborators to deliver trusted, verifiable, and scalable AI-powered workflows that improve engineering productivity, design quality, and time-to-results.

Requirements

• Master's or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computer/Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related field.
• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, including 5+ years leading organizations that deliver commercial EDA platforms, AI-enabled engineering systems, distributed infrastructure, or production-grade software used in complex semiconductor design flows.
• Demonstrated success in customer-facing engineering roles—leading deep-dive technical discovery, executive QBRs, customer advisory boards, and joint innovation initiatives with top-tier semiconductor or hyperscale design teams.
• Proven ability to drive technical consensus and build unified architectural standards across disparate, geographically distributed product divisions with competing business priorities.
• Hands-on architectural fluency in multi-agent orchestration, generative AI, retrieval-augmented generation, knowledge graphs, multimodal EDA data, graph-based models for circuits and netlists, domain-adapted LLMs for RTL and design collateral, and secure deployment patterns for proprietary semiconductor data.
• Deep understanding of semiconductor design and verification flows from architecture exploration and RTL through implementation, physical verification, signoff, test, custom IC design, PCB/system design, and manufacturing readiness, with appreciation for advanced-node, chiplet, 3D IC, and heterogeneous integration challenges.
• Strong command of modern C++ (17/20), Python, distributed microservices, GPU inference scaling, and on-prem/hybrid HPC execution environments.
• Demonstrated ability to build AI systems where accuracy, verifiability, robustness, usability, security, and customer trust are core design requirements—not afterthoughts.

Nice To Haves

• Prior experience deploying AI-powered engineering solutions in secure customer environments, including on-premises, hybrid, air-gapped, and multi-tenant architectures with enterprise-grade access control, auditability, and IP protection.
• Track record of turning strategic customer PoCs, lighthouse deployments, or joint innovation programs into production-scale Siemens EDA product adoption and measurable business impact.
• Active contributions to EDA/AI thought leadership, standards, ecosystem partnerships, industry consortia, customer advisory boards, or keynote presentations at DAC, ICCAD, DATE, NVIDIA GTC, User2User, or major semiconductor forums.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the engineering roadmap for Siemens EDA's generative and agentic AI capabilities, including multi-agent workflow orchestration, autonomous design-space exploration, natural-language tool control, and AI-powered design intelligence across functional IC, physical IC, manufacturing, 3D IC, and electronic systems workflows.
• Partner with R&D leaders, chief architects, product management, and platform teams across the Siemens EDA portfolio—including Solido, Calibre, Questa One, Tessent, Aprisa, Veloce, Catapult, Xpedition, HyperLynx, and related solutions—to establish shared AI platform layers, unified APIs, common agent skills, consistent telemetry, and reusable infrastructure without fragmenting core engines.
• Serve as a senior technical leader and trusted AI advisor for strategic Siemens EDA customers, including hyperscalers, fabless semiconductor companies, IDMs, foundries, and systems companies. Co-develop customer-relevant agentic workflows, lead technical evaluations and design reviews, and translate critical design bottlenecks into differentiated Siemens EDA product capabilities.
• Collaborate with leading foundries, IP providers, cloud partners, and AI ecosystem collaborators to enable secure, standards-aware workflows that incorporate PDKs, design rules, signoff collateral, reference flows, and customer design context into Siemens EDA AI runtimes while maintaining enterprise-grade governance, auditability, access controls, and IP protection.
• Architect scalable agent runtimes and tool-calling protocols that can plan, act, reflect, iterate, and execute across Siemens EDA and third-party environments through APIs, MCP-style interfaces, command-line flows, GUI integrations, and human-in-the-loop checkpoints, while preserving deterministic fallbacks and signoff-quality validation.
• Recruit, mentor, and lead high-performing teams of applied AI engineers, EDA domain experts, agentic systems architects, and MLOps/AgentOps engineers. Drive disciplined execution, reusable platform investment, product-quality engineering practices, and cross-business-unit collaboration to convert AI innovation into production-ready Siemens EDA offerings.

Benefits

• Flexibility is how we work—hybrid by default, built on trust and autonomy.
• Grow through real projects, strong technical peers, and global mobility, backed by the scale and benefits of an industrial software leader.
• Health and wellness benefits
• Total cash compensation range: $146,700 - $264,000
• 15% annual incentive target (100% achievement)

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior