Hardware Tools Engineer

What MatX is Building

MatX's mission is to make the world's best AI models run as efficiently as allowed by physics, bringing the world years ahead in AI quality and availability. We build the full stack, from silicon and rack design through compilers, kernels, and ML models.

Most of our chip is written in Bluespec, a high-level hardware description language, and the Bluespec compiler turns it into Verilog. Our architects write executable models in Rust, and our verification engineers check the RTL with simulation and formal methods. The Hardware Tools team owns the Bluespec compiler, our hardware libraries, and the tools that connect them.

The team's customers are MatX's own engineers in Architecture, Design, Design Verification, and Formal Verification. Every change we make to the language, the compiler, or our tools has to make one of those teams faster or help them find problems earlier. You will learn what each team needs by working with them directly, and your work will be measured by its effect on their schedules.

You will be working in an existing system, not starting one. The Bluespec compiler is a mature open-source Haskell codebase with MatX extensions, and our engineers use it every day on a chip we are taping out. Changes have to be safe for that tapeout while we build what the next chip needs.

This role builds the language and tools that MatX's architects, designers, and verification engineers use every day.

What You'll Do Here:

• The areas below are where the work starts today. The hardware teams' needs change from one chip to the next, and we expect you to help decide what the team builds next
• Work with the hardware teams: Find out where architects, designers, and verification engineers spend their time, and decide with them what to build. A tool is finished when the engineers it was built for are using it and you can show what it changed for them

• Evolve the language and the compiler: Improve Bluespec, its type system, its libraries, and its compiler so that hardware is faster to write, faster to build, and easier to change late in a project. Current examples include compile speed, stable and reproducible output, and language features that catch design errors earlier

• Connect design and verification: Build tools that make what the compiler knows about a design available to simulation and formal verification. Current examples include assertions written in Bluespec, checks and formal assumptions generated by the compiler, and flows that check Rust reference models against the RTL

• Improve the developer experience: Build the debugging, editor, and build tools that make hardware engineers more productive. Own testing and releases of the compiler and libraries so that a new release never breaks a team's build

• Fix the cause: When an engineer hits a problem, fix it in the compiler, the library, or the shared flow so that nobody hits it again. Contribute fixes and features that belong in the open-source compiler upstream

Who You Are:

• Senior-level self-direction: You can take an ambiguous request from another team, work out the underlying problem, and drive it to a shipped tool without close supervision

• Strong Haskell: You can write, debug, and profile production Haskell in a large codebase. The Bluespec compiler is written in Haskell and you will be changing it. Prior knowledge of GHC internals is not required

• Strong Rust: You write production Rust. Our hardware libraries, code generators, simulators, and reference models are written in Rust

• You can read RTL: You can read Bluespec, Verilog, or SystemVerilog well enough to understand what the compiler produced and why a design, test, or proof behaves the way it does. Hardware design experience is helpful but not required

• You build for other engineers: You have built tools that other engineers depend on, and you have changed them based on what those engineers told you. You are comfortable with Python, build systems (Bazel preferred), and CI

• On-site or remote: You would work with teams across MatX, and the role can be based in our Mountain View, CA office or remote

• Occasional travel: Expect a few trips a year to meet the teams you work with in person

Bonus Points If You Have:

• Experience building a compiler, or verifying one through translation validation, a verified compiler such as CompCert or CakeML, or systematic compiler testing and fuzzing

• Contributions to bsc, GHC, rustc, or another production compiler

• Experience with Bluespec (BH or BSV), Chisel, Clash, or another high-level hardware language

• Experience with hardware verification: SystemVerilog Assertions, simulation testbenches, or model checking with JasperGold, VC Formal, or SymbiYosys

• Experience with interactive theorem provers (Isabelle/HOL, Lean, Rocq), mechanized hardware semantics (Kami, Koika), or semantics frameworks (K, Sail, Ott)

• Experience with SAT or SMT solvers inside a type checker or another compiler pass

• Experience with language servers, debuggers, or waveform tools

• Open-source hardware tools and their internals: Yosys, Verilator, or SymbiYosys

Compensation

The US base salary for this full-time position is determined based on a variety of factors including role, experience, location, job-related skills, and relevant education and training. Career length is only a guideline for compensation.

• Early Career - $160,000 - $275,000 + equity

• Mid Career - $175,000 - $400,000 + equity

• Senior Career - $250,000 - $600,000 + equity

What We Offer

• Time off: 4 weeks PTO (accrued) + 12 company Holidays + 3 religious observance days

• Health:
• Medical. Company-subsidized Medical (Kaiser or Anthem) for employees & dependents

• Dental + Vision. Guardian Dental and Vision insurances for employee & dependents

• HSA and FSA offerings via Lively (HSA includes MatX lump sum contribution)

• Concierge Care Advocates via Mishe. A white-glove service to help you navigate the maze of insurance, find providers, file (and appeal) claims

• Travel medical insurance . Covers both business and personal trips

• MatX Family Fund. $6k fund via Benepass to fill the gaps in traditional insurance. Covers family-building, maternity, menopause, mental health and bodywork.

• Financial Wellbeing:
• Retirement . Choose from Roth/ 401K (or both) retirement plans with up to 5% company contribution to 401K (even if you don't contribute).

• Wealthfront Workplace Accounts . Non-401K investment, high-yield savings & brokerage. MatX pays your fees for the 1st $100K

• Life, AD&D and Disability. Company-paid life insurance (up to $300K) and long-term disability insurances.

• Daily Meals: MatX provides $80/day budget for onsite and remote meals, via a plethora of options including Webox, Locale, plus Ramp virtual cards.

• Commute on Us: Commute on our company Uber account, or reimburse your train rides. Either way, we pay 100% for your daily commute.

• WFH Support:
• Home Setup. $1500 to make your home office comfortable & productive for you

• Cell & Internet Reimbursement. $60/mo for cellular and $60/mo for wifi

• Professional Development: $1500 Professional Development Budget (per year)

• MatX E[x]tras: $50/mo to use on whatever perk you value most

• Mental Wellbeing: 100% paid mental health benefit via SpringHealth and Guardian EAP

• Support to Parents: Up to 20 weeks paid parental leave regardless of path to parenthood, up to 18 weeks pregnancy disability leave, and flexible return-to-work hours

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