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Forward Deployed Engineer

ChipAgents

San Jose, CAJob$180–300K/yrPosted 6 days agoStill listed 4 days ago

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At a glance

Compensation
$180–300K/yr
Location
San Jose, CA
Work Authorization
Not specified

Olive lists jobs from US employers, including remote roles you can work from the United States.

Job overview

ChipAgents is hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer with chip design, verification, and EDA experience to build software alongside customer teams. The engineer will embed with semiconductor customers, identify their problems, and develop capabilities beyond the existing product in collaboration with internal R&D and customer experts. The role connects ChipAgents to customer design and verification flows and involves frequent on-site customer travel.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

Artificial IntelligenceC/C++ScriptingRegister Transfer LevelTypeScriptSystemVerilogPythonSemiconductorsVerilogAutomationTCLUVMFormal VerificationEDAAccess ControlChip DesignDesign VerificationRTLTestbenchesSimulationDebuggingC++Software EngineeringAI AgentsClaude CodeCodexOpenCodeCommunicationCommercial EDA ToolsAI Agent CustomizationForward-Deployed EngineeringSolutions EngineeringApplications EngineeringField EngineeringMakefilesSecure Customer EnvironmentsData Access

Qualifications

BS or MS in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Related FieldSemiconductor, EDA, or Hardware Company ExperienceFrequent on-Site Customer Travel

Benefits

Paid Time Off
Medical Insurance
Vision Insurance
Dental Insurance
401(k) Match

Full job description

About ChipAgents ChipAgents is revolutionizing chip design and verification with agentic-AI workflows. Founded by experts in AI and semiconductor design, we partner with top-10 semiconductor companies, hyperscale cloud providers, and cutting-edge startups. Our platform accelerates RTL development, functional verification, and simulation, unlocking new levels of productivity and design quality.

Role Overview We're hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer who come from chip design, verification, and EDA and want to build software. You will embed directly with customer teams at some of the largest semiconductor companies, working alongside an internal R&D engineer and a customer-side domain expert. We’re looking for engineers with hands-on experience in RTL, testbenches, and simulation who can quickly identify the customer’s real problems and build new capabilities alongside them, beyond supporting our existing product.

Key Responsibilities

  • Embed on-site (or near-site) with customer design and verification teams to build new solutions with them.

  • Own the customer relationship end-to-end for your account, from problem definition to a working product in their hands.

  • Work with R&D, domain experts, and customer champions to turn field problems in RTL development and verification into shipped solutions.

  • Write code that connects ChipAgents to customer design flows, including RTL, testbenches, simulators, and verification environments.

Qualifications

  • BS or MS in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.

  • Hands-on experience in chip design or design verification (DV) at a semiconductor, EDA, or hardware company.

  • Working knowledge of Verilog, SystemVerilog, and RTL, and familiarity with verification flows such as testbenches, simulation, and debug.

  • Software engineering skills (Python required; C++ or TypeScript a plus) and a strong interest in working at the intersection of software and hardware. You are comfortable building under ambiguity and shipping custom, working solutions without a stable spec.

  • AI-native, with experience using AI agents, especially coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode.

  • Excellent communicator, able to work directly with customer engineers and managers and translate field learnings into clear priorities for research and product teams.

  • Comfortable with frequent on-site customer travel.

Nice to Haves

  • Experience with UVM, formal verification, or commercial EDA tools.

  • Experience customizing AI agents.

  • Prior forward-deployed, solutions engineering, applications engineering, or field engineering experience in the semiconductor industry.

  • Experience with scripting and automation around design flows, such as Python, Tcl, or Makefiles.

  • Experience standing up secure customer environments and data access.

Why ChipAgents

  • Work at the intersection of AI and semiconductors, using your chip and EDA background to build software that changes how chips are designed.

  • Work alongside a world-class technical team and an advisory board of EDA legends, with real product, real customers, and real scale already in production.

Equal Opportunity ChipAgents is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds.

What We Offer

  • $180K/yr – $300K/yr base salary + equity. Open to above-scale compensation for exceptional candidates.

  • Unlimited PTO and full benefits (medical, vision, dental, 401k).

  • Two engineering-centric offices with free parking, private gym, and free lunch, drinks and snacks.

How this job compares

Set against the 2,558 open Forward Deployed Engineer jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 3, 2026.

Pay
  • This posting$180–300K/yr
  • California median$155–255K/yr497 salary ranges
  • US median$135–253K/yr2,185 salary ranges

This range's midpoint, $240K, is 17% above the California median midpoint ($205K) — in the top quarter of Forward Deployed Engineer salary ranges in California.

Openings
Olive Jobs lists 610 open Forward Deployed Engineer jobs in California and 2,558 across the US. 6% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
Hiring the most in California
Experience
Forward Deployed Engineer postings that state a minimum ask for 5 years of experience at the median; the middle half ask for 3 to 7 years (2,200 postings).
Education
562 of the 2,558 open Forward Deployed Engineer jobs (22%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.

Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 3, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.

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