Senior RTL Design Engineer

Cspeed IO is a stealth start up backed by Sutter Hills Ventures and Atreides Capital - headquartered in Palo Alto, CA.  Our executive team has a demonstrated track record of building and scaling category-defining semiconductor and infrastructure businesses at companies like Broadcom, Lumentum, Tesla, Apple, Samsung, Intel, and VMware.

Cspeed IO is developing next-generation optical semiconductor solutions for the AI infrastructure market, focused on enabling true “scale-up” architectures.  Our mission is to replace traditional copper interconnects with advanced fiber-optic technologies that overcome the limitations of existing optics solutions and architectures.

We are looking for an RTL Design Engineer (5–7 years’ experience) to join our Data Center Connectivity design team. This role is ideal for engineers passionate about RTL, microarchitecture, interconnect logic, and front-end design flows driving high-bandwidth, low-latency systems.

Key Responsibilities

• Take ownership of RTL design and microarchitecture for IP/Subsystems.
• Work from high-level architectural specs and break them down into detailed microarchitecture and build synthesizable RTL from scratch.
• Design efficient Datapath and control logic — think queues, arbiters, FIFOs, and clock-domain crossings — that can scale for high bandwidth and low latency.
• Collaborate closely with architects, and SoC level cross functional teams to make sure the design meets performance, power, and area goals.
• Write clear and maintainable System Verilog RTL and documentation that others can build on.
• Drive the full front-end design flow — lint, CDC, synthesis, timing, and debug — and own your block through to tape out.
• Participate in design reviews, contribute ideas to improve logic architecture, and help refine design best practices.
• Debug simulation or synthesis issues quickly and efficiently and work hands-on with verification teams to close all functional coverage.
• Stay up to date on new interconnect technologies and help shape next-gen architecture discussions.

Required Skills and Experience

• E./B. Tech/M. E/M. Tech in Electrical, Electronics, or Computer Engineering.
• 4–7 years of strong hands-on RTL design and integration experience in SoC, networking, or interconnect logic.
• Proven strength in microarchitecture development and System Verilog/Verilog RTL coding.
• Good understanding of connectivity and interconnect protocols such as AMBA (AXI/AHB/APB) etc; PCIe, or Ethernet is a plus.
• ARM/RISC-V processor-based subsystem/SoC knowledge is a plus.
• Solid understanding of clock/reset architectures, FIFOs, CDC, and low-power design techniques.
• Hands on writing in SDC and UPF constraint writing, LEC.
• Hands-on expertise with front-end industry EDA tools.
• Strong debugging and analytical skills with experience in Git and collaborative design workflows.

Why This Role

• Work on next-gen data center connectivity.
• Gain deep exposure to microarchitecture, connectivity subsystems, and SoC Design integration.
• Be part of a highly technical team that values innovation, ownership, and learning.
• Competitive compensation, technical growth, and exposure to cutting-edge design challenges.