CARIAD, Inc. · 5 hours ago
Principal Engineer, AI Hardware Modeling (NPU)
Mountain View, CA
Full-time
Hybrid
Lead/Staff
12+ years expCARIAD is an automotive software development team within the Volkswagen Group, focused on enhancing the automotive experience. The Principal Engineer, AI Hardware Modeling (NPU) will provide expert technical leadership in developing hardware models for AI accelerators and NPU architectures, collaborating closely with various teams to ensure alignment with hardware specifications and facilitate early software development.
AutomotiveInformation TechnologySoftware
No H1B
Responsibilities
Lead the design, implementation, and maintenance of bit-accurate and cycle-accurate C/C++ hardware models representing NPU architectures and subsystems
Model complex compute engines, memory hierarchies, interconnects, and control logic with high fidelity to hardware specifications
Define scalable modeling architectures that evolve with changing hardware designs and microarchitecture updates
Collaborate with architecture and RTL teams to ensure model alignment with hardware intent and implementation details
Design and develop software interfaces and APIs that allow software teams to interact with hardware models as if using physical silicon
Build emulator-style frameworks that support register-level access, memory inspection, and controlled execution of AI workloads
Implement debugging, introspection, and tracing capabilities to support deep analysis of hardware and model behavior
Develop integrated performance profiling and analysis tools within the modeling environment
Enable detailed inspection and modification of memory and register state to support debug, optimization, and issue triage
Provide modeling infrastructure to support hardware–software co-verification and system-level validation
Partner with verification teams to ensure model correctness, completeness, and alignment with verification scenarios
Support FPGA prototyping, emulation, and early validation flows as required
Provide expert technical guidance on hardware modeling methodologies, best practices, and tooling
Influence modeling standards and approaches across programs to improve scalability, accuracy, and developer productivity
Communicate complex modeling concepts and limitations clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
Qualification
Required
Extensive expertise in C/C++ programming for hardware modeling and simulation
Strong understanding of NPU or AI accelerator architectures, memory systems, and dataflow
Solid grounding in computer architecture and digital design principles
Experience with SystemC, transaction-level modeling (TLM), and/or hardware description languages
Familiarity with modern software development practices, including version control, testing, and CI pipelines
Proven experience with bit-accurate and cycle-accurate modeling and hardware–software co-design methodologies
Proficiency in performance optimization and memory management for large-scale software systems
12+ years of experience in hardware modeling, emulation, or related fields, with a proven track record of delivering production-quality hardware models
Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering
Preferred
Prior experience modeling AI accelerators, NPUs, GPUs, or similar compute
Knowledge of automotive hardware requirements and functional safety concepts
Experience with FPGA prototyping, emulation, or hardware-in-the-loop validation
Background in parallel computing and high-performance simulation
Contributions to open-source modeling frameworks or relevant technical publications
Exposure to GenAI-assisted engineering tools and AI-augmented development workflows
Master's degree in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering
Company
CARIAD, Inc.
For generations, Volkswagen AG has included a collection of legendary brands.
201-500 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageLeadership Team
Scott Runner
Chief Executive Officer
Julian Christopher Zeug
Director IT Security, Chief Information Security Officer
Recent News
2026-01-07
2026-01-05
2025-11-28
Company data provided by crunchbase