Founding AI Researcher (AI for Chip Design)

About XORVIS AI

At Xorvis, we are building the self-evolving agentic system for autonomous design of chip IP & SoC. Our solution targets differentiation in continuous chip optimization, autonomous last-mile verification coverage closure, and transforming a company's proprietary design knowledge into reusable AI intelligence that compounds across projects.

The Opportunity

As AI Researcher, you will define the company’s AI technology architecture that shapes our product differentiation and long-term competitive moat. You will drive innovations in self-evolving agentic systems, translate cutting-edge AI research into production-grade capabilities, and represent XORVIS AI in technical forums and the broader AI community. We are an early stage startup & This is a high-bar, high-impact founding member role with significant ownership, substantial upside.

This role is ideal for someone with strong clarity on the evolving waves of Agentic AI and the ability to identify the right technical direction to build a compelling, differentiated product. You keep a first principles approach in creatively thinking and communicating. You have a startup mindset, energized by ownership, expertise to build at fast pace, enjoy operating with ambiguity and build something meaningful rather than joining an already charted course.

What You'll Own

• Build novel, agent-native tools and algorithms purpose-built for autonomous chip design workflows.
• Develop lightweight models of intent, design, and coverage space that are computationally cheap to evolve, ingest constraints and directives, and reason explainably.
• Build agents that incorporate user intent, drive EDA tools, execute multi-step workflows, analyze results, recover from failures, and improve over time.
• Design rigorous evaluation methods for Agentic tools and agents.
• Devise benchmarks and KPIs that decisively establish product quality and ROI with customers.

What We’re Looking For

Required

• PhD in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering, with a machine learning focus — or equivalent research/industry experience.
• Demonstrated research or engineering experience in two or more of:

-- Agentic AI (long-horizon research agents, reinforcement learning, latent-space reasoning, long-context reasoning, self-evolving systems)

-- ML-based constrained optimization over large design space

-- Knowledge representation and reasoning

-- Chip Arch / design / verification / EDA / formal verification

-- Machine learning for engineering or scientific applications

• Background in chip design / EDA: familiarity with SystemVerilog, UVM, PPA, timing, semiconductor design flows, and EDA tools.
• Hands-on experience building closed loop AI agents that interact with tools, codebases, databases, or external environments.
• Clear written and verbal communication.

Preferred

• Research Experience in AI-EDA, developing EDA algorithms, optimization engines, design internal representations, or domain-specific tools.
• Publications in leading ML, EDA, Performance Analysis & tuning, formal verification or computer architecture venues.
• Experience with LLM post-training, fine tuning, evaluation.

Compensation & Terms

• Base: $250,000 – $300,000
• Equity: 4% – 6% — meaningful ownership, long-term alignment
• Work model: Onsite 5 days/week in San Jose, CA (relocation supported for the right candidate)
• Sponsorship: U.S. Citizens and Green Card holders preferred; Open to visa candidates already based in the Bay Area