Job Description :

As the Principal Firmware Architect for UALink Switch Products, you will serve as the technical visionary responsible for defining, designing, and driving the end-to-end embedded software and firmware architecture for our next-generation AI cluster scale-up switches.

In this high-impact role, you will bridge the gap between cutting-edge silicon (ASICs) and upper-layer cluster orchestration software. You will define how firmware manages complex scale-up topologies, ensures raw hardware performance (maximizing bandwidth and minimizing latency), and maintains absolute reliability across thousands of connected AI accelerators.

1. Architectural Definition & Design :

- Fabric Firmware Architecture : Architect and specify the low-level firmware running on internal microcontrollers within the UALink Switch ASIC.

- Hardware-Software Co-Design : Collaborate heavily with ASIC design, logic design (RTL), and verification teams to define hardware-software interfaces, registers, scratchpads, and memory maps.

- Protocol Implementation : Define the firmware stack to support UALink physical, link, and transport layers, managing credits, routing tables, and flow control.

2. Initialization, Boot, & Fabric Management :

- Link Initialization & Training : Design deterministic, fast link-training state machines to bring up ultra-high-speed die-to-die and chassis-to-chassis UALink connections.

- Topology Discovery & Routing : Architect efficient algorithms for runtime topology discovery, dynamic routing, and credit management to prevent fabric congestion.

- Platform Orchestration : Lead the design of SDKs and APIs that expose switch functionality to baseboard management controllers (BMCs) using OpenBMC and Redfish APIs.

3. Performance, RAS, & Security :

- Latency & Bandwidth Optimization : Fine-tune bare-metal execution paths to guarantee deterministic low latency for collective communication primitives (e.g., All-Reduce, All-to-All).

- Advanced RAS (Reliability, Availability, Serviceability) : Design robust error-handling, telemetry, and fault-isolation micro-architectures (e.g., link degradation fallback, FEC, and error containment).

- Security & Root of Trust : Implement secure boot, cryptographic firmware authentication, and runtime attestation to ensure fabric integrity.

Qualifications :

Education & Experience :

- Degree : Bachelors or Masters/Ph.D. in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline.

- Experience : 15+ years of hands-on experience in embedded systems, server platform architecture, or low-level silicon firmware development.

Technical Skill Set :

- Language Masteries : Expert-level proficiency in C for bare-metal and RTOS environments (e.g., ThreadX, FreeRTOS, Zephyr) and Python for hardware automation and modeling.

- Protocol Expertise : Deep technical understanding of high-speed scale-up/scale-out interconnect protocols (UALink, NVLink, CXL, or PCIe Gen5/Gen6).

- Network Switching Concepts : Comprehensive knowledge of credit-based flow control, packet routing, physical layer (PHY) equalization, and SerDes management.

- Tooling : Strong familiarity with hardware debuggers (JTAG, Lauterbach/TRACE32) and lab equipment (Oscilloscopes, PCIe/Protocol Analyzers).