Senior Software Engineer, Hardware Compiler

About the job

Google designs some of the most advanced custom silicon on the planet—including our AI-powering TPUs, the Tensor SoC in our Pixel devices, and our custom YouTube video accelerators. But to keep pushing the boundaries of what these chips can do, we need hardware design tools that can match our scale and capabilities. That’s where Core Hardware Tools comes in.

We are building custom EDA (Electronic Design Automation) tools for Google’s ever growing hardware portfolio. Traditional hardware development is often bottlenecked by constrained, legacy workflows that limit how fast teams can iterate. We are fixing this by bringing the best of Google's distributed software engineering and AI capabilities directly into the hardware design process.

Our tools are already in production. They are helping the YouTube, TPU, and Google Deepmind teams develop ever more powerful custom hardware.

We aren't just taping out chips; we are building a compiler where the goal is physical silicon. If you want to break down the walls between software engineering, artificial intelligence, and hardware design to build the tools that power Google's custom silicon, we want you on the team.

The Core team builds the technical foundation behind Google’s flagship products. We are owners and advocates for the underlying design elements, developer platforms, product components, and infrastructure at Google. These are the essential building blocks for excellent, safe, and coherent experiences for our users and drive the pace of innovation for every developer. We look across Google’s products to build central solutions, break down technical barriers and strengthen existing systems. As the Core team, we have a mandate and a unique opportunity to impact important technical decisions across the company.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $174,000-$252,000 + bonus + equity + benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process.

Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include bonus, equity, or benefits. Learn more about benefits at Google.

Responsibilities

• Identify and debug critical gaps in Google’s EDA toolchain, with a particular focus on synthesis or place and route optimization.
• Propose solutions to these problems, and see them through implementation and adoption.
• Work closely with GDM, Cloud, YouTube, and Waymo engineers to identify new opportunities for Google EDA to leverage our in-house EDA tools to improve Google hardware.
• Work with external upstream open source software contributors to get your improvements accepted upstream.