About the role
We are looking for a Principal System Design Architect to take technical ownership of a major digital subsystem within a sophisticated SoC.
This role is for a senior digital designer who leads architecture and RTL implementation, makes independent design decisions, and sets the technical bar for correctness, scalability, and robustness.
You will lead a defined technical area, influence design direction beyond your immediate team, and deliver solutions that materially impact product quality and programme success.
Missions
- Be responsible for the micro-architecture and RTL design of a sophisticated digital subsystem or IP.
- Translate system requirements into clean, scalable RTL architectures.
- Lead multi-clock domain design:
- CDC architecture and partitioning
- Clock gating and clock-enable strategy
- Robust reset synchronisation
- Lead multi-power domain digital design
- Power-state aware RTL
- Isolation, retention, and reset interactions
- Power sequencing considerations
- Drive SoC-level integration readiness, including:
- Interface definition and ownership
- Clock, reset, and power integration
- Performance and latency trade-offs
- Make and defend independent design trade-offs
- Produce high-quality design documentation
- Lead and influence design reviews, challenging weak designs and raising overall design quality.
- Mentor engineers on sophisticated digital design techniques.
- Collaborate with verification, physical design, and validation teams to ensure design intent is correctly realised
Technical Skills
Digital design & RTL
- Expert-level SystemVerilog / Verilog for synthesizable RTL.
- Confirmed experience designing large, sophisticated RTL blocks that are:
- Readable and maintainable
- Parameterised and reusable
- Scalable across projects
- Strong command of:
- FSMs and control logic
- Pipelines and latency management
- Arbitration and flow control
- Error handling and recovery
Clocking & reset
- Deep experience with multi-clock domain systems:
- CDC mechanisms (async FIFO, handshakes, synchronisers)
- Clock domain partitioning
- Robust reset architecture design:
- Global vs local reset strategy
- Safe bring-up and recovery
Power-aware design
- Experience designing multi-power domain digital logic.
- Strong understanding of how power intent affects RTL structure and behaviour.
- UPF awareness (authoring not required).
SoC & system awareness
- Good understanding of SoC fundamentals:
- Interconnects (AMBA)
- Addressing and memory-mapped control
- Performance bottlenecks and contention
- Ability to reason beyond local RTL into system-level impact.
Design leadership
- Experience leading design reviews and technical direction.
- Recognised as a technical authority in digital design.
- Comfortable owning decisions that affect a significant part of the product.
Design-for-verification (expected, not primary)
- Strong design-for-verification
- Clean interfaces
- Observability and debuggability
- Targeted assertions where appropriate
- Ability to review verification results and debug issues.
- Verification ownership is not the focus of this role.
Tools & environment
- Daily use of RTL simulators (Cadence / Synopsys / Siemens).
- Experience with lint, CDC, and basic static analysis tools.
- Comfortable in large Unix-based design environments.
- Scripting (Python / Tcl / Bash) to support design productivity.
Experience & qualifications
- ASIC / SoC digital design experience.
- Confirmed ownership of at least one major design block end-to-end.
- Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or equivalent experience.
Nice to have
- Experience with memory controllers, high-speed IO, fabrics, or sophisticated control subsystems.
- Prior exposure to timing closure considerations.
- Familiarity with formal techniques (nice to have, not required).
In return
You’ll work on groundbreaking SoCs, with the autonomy to shape design direction, influence architecture decisions, and see your designs impact products used across the industry.
Arm offers competitive compensation, flexible working, and a collaborative engineering culture that values technical excellence.
Equal opportunities
Arm is committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and are happy to support reasonable adjustments throughout the hiring process.
Accommodations at Arm
At Arm, we want to build extraordinary teams. If you need an adjustment or an accommodation during the recruitment process, please email accommodations@arm.com. To note, by sending us the requested information, you consent to its use by Arm to arrange for appropriate accommodations. All accommodation or adjustment requests will be treated with confidentiality, and information concerning these requests will only be disclosed as necessary to provide the accommodation. Although this is not an exhaustive list, examples of support include breaks between interviews, having documents read aloud, or office accessibility. Please email us about anything we can do to accommodate you during the recruitment process.
Hybrid Working at Arm
Arm’s approach to hybrid working is designed to create a working environment that supports both high performance and personal wellbeing. We believe in bringing people together face to face to enable us to work at pace, whilst recognizing the value of flexibility. Within that framework, we empower groups/teams to determine their own hybrid working patterns, depending on the work and the team’s needs. Details of what this means for each role will be shared upon application. In some cases, the flexibility we can offer is limited by local legal, regulatory, tax, or other considerations, and where this is the case, we will collaborate with you to find the best solution. Please talk to us to find out more about what this could look like for you.
Equal Opportunities at Arm
Arm is an equal opportunity employer, committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal opportunities are available to all applicants and colleagues. We are a diverse organization of dedicated and innovative individuals, and don’t discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.