Head of Post-Silicon Engineering

Company Overview

Ambiq is on a mission to enable intelligence everywhere — powering the AI edge revolution with the world's lowest-power semiconductor solutions.

Built on our proprietary sub- and near-threshold technology, our chips deliver multi-fold improvements in energy efficiency without costly process scaling. Since 2010, we've shipped over 290 million units to customers building smarter wearables, medical devices, IoT products, and AI-powered edge applications.

Our cross-functional teams span design, research, development, production, marketing, sales, and operations across Austin, Hsinchu, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Singapore. We move fast, tackle hard problems, and create space for people to grow through complex, meaningful work that shapes the future of technology.

We're looking for self-motivated, creative problem-solvers who are eager to push technological limits and make a real impact in energy efficiency.

At Ambiq, we live by five values: Innovate. Collaborate. Focus. Learn. Achieve.

If that's you, join us — the intelligence everywhere revolution starts here.

This role will be on-site 5 days a week in NW Austin.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Shape the future of ultra-low-power computing. As Head of Post-Silicon Engineering, you will own the critical path from first silicon to mass production for a portfolio of industry-leading MCUs powering the next generation of wearables, hearables, and IoT devices — products used by tens of millions of people worldwide.

This is a senior leadership role with broad technical authority, direct executive visibility, and real impact on how the world’s most power-sensitive devices are built and shipped.

WHAT YOU WILL OWN

Strategy & Organizational Leadership

• Define and drive post-silicon engineering strategy for ultra-low-power MCUs across the full product lifecycle — from first silicon through production ramp and long-term lifecycle support.
• Build, lead, and inspire a high-performance global organization of senior managers, engineers, and technical leads with deep MCU, low-power, and system-level expertise.
• Establish roadmaps, resourcing plans, and org structures that scale to support both the current portfolio and next-generation low-power MCU programs.
• Foster a culture of accountability, data-driven decision-making, continuous improvement, and technical excellence.
• Develop talent pipeline and succession plans; attract and retain top-tier industry talent in low-power and system validation domains.
• Manage budgets, headcount, capital expenditures, lab infrastructure, and automation tooling investments.

Post-Silicon Validation & Bring-Up

• Own execution of silicon bring-up, validation, characterization, debug, and system integration for all MCU-based products.
• Lead teams responsible for:
  • MCU bring-up and initial functionality enablement: JTAG, boot, power-up sequences, clocking, resets, security, and debug interfaces.
  • Functional and system-level validation against specifications and real-world use cases in wearables, hearables, and IoT — including always-on sensing, audio processing, and BLE connectivity.
  • Power, performance, and thermal characterization across PVT corners, with emphasis on aggressive ultra-low-power targets: sleep/standby currents, active power during sensor and audio workloads, and wake-up latencies.
  • Peripheral and interface validation: memory, GPIO, timers, I²C, SPI, UART, audio interfaces, BLE/wireless subsystems, analog front-ends, ADCs/DACs, and integrated PMUs.
• Drive automation framework development, validation infrastructure, and reusable test content optimized for MCU and low-power system behaviors common in wearable, hearable, and IoT nodes.

Debug & Issue Resolution

• Own post-silicon debug strategy and escalation: lab issues, customer-reported failures, and production escapes.
• Collaborate closely with Design, Verification, DFT, Firmware, Systems, and Product/Test Engineering to root-cause failures and implement corrective actions — design fixes, ROM patching strategies, test changes, and specification updates.
• Establish metrics and processes for rapid issue closure, silicon errata documentation, MCU revision management, and risk mitigation, with a strong emphasis on field reliability in consumer and IoT deployments.

Test, Production & Quality

• Collaborate with Product/Test Engineering on ATE test strategy for MCUs, including analog, digital, low-power, and RF/wireless-related test coverage.
• Ensure strong alignment between post-silicon validation, yield ramp, and manufacturing test to meet quality, reliability, and cost targets for high-volume consumer and IoT production.

Customer & Field Engagement

• Lead technical engagements with key customers: power deep dives, audio and sensor workload characterization, connectivity validation, and system bring-up support at customer sites.
• Drive resolution of system-level issues spanning firmware, hardware, sensors, audio chains, wireless connectivity, and power subsystems typical of wearables, hearables, and IoT products.
• Translate post-silicon learnings, field data, and customer feedback into product and roadmap influence — your team’s findings shape what we build next.
• Provide technical leadership on reference designs, evaluation boards, low-power demos, audio/sensing example projects, and application notes that accelerate customer design-in and time-to-market.
• Maintain strong cross-regional collaboration with engineering and customer teams in Asia.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field (advanced degree strongly preferred).
• 20+ years of semiconductor development experience, with substantial time in MCU or low-power SoC post-silicon validation, bring-up, or test.
• 7+ years in senior leadership roles (Director, Sr. Director, or equivalent) managing multi-site engineering teams.
• Deep technical expertise in one or more of:
  • Low-power microcontrollers (ARM Cortex-M or equivalent cores, memory subsystems, clocking, power domains, analog/mixed-signal integration, security).
  • SoCs optimized for battery-powered wearables, hearables, and IoT applications.
• Proven track record of first-silicon success, productization, and high-volume production in low-power MCU/SoC products.
• Hands-on experience with lab bring-up tools and environments: oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, power analyzers, source meters.
• Experience with validation and automation frameworks: Python/C/C++, scripting, regression infrastructure, and data analysis.
• Solid understanding of ATE concepts, test coverage, and correlation between lab, system, and production test.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex, multi-product programs, make principled technical and schedule trade-offs, and deliver on aggressive timelines.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in Electrical/Computer Engineering or related field.
• Direct experience with ultra-low-power MCU design or validation for wearables, hearables, or IoT: deep sleep modes, always-on power domains, sensor hub or audio pipelines, power gating, DVFS.
• Experience with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) or other low-power wireless protocols, sensor integration, audio front-ends, and real-time processing common in these markets.
• Familiarity with safety, regulatory, and reliability standards relevant to wearables, hearables, and IoT — consumer, medical-adjacent, or industrial IoT contexts.
• Prior leadership of global organizations with teams across multiple regions and time zones.

Must be currently authorized to work in the United States for any employer. We do not sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas (now or in the future) for this role.