Senior Engineering Director

About Us Axelera AI is not your regular deep‑tech startup. We are creating the next‑generation AI platform to support anyone who wants to help advancing humanity and improve the world around us. In just four years, we have raised a total of $120 million and have built a world‑class team of 220+ employees (including 49+ PhDs with more than 40,000 citations), both remotely from 17 different countries and with offices in Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, the UK, headquartered at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, Netherlands. We have also launched our Metis™ AI Platform, which achieves a 3‑5× increase in efficiency and performance, and have visibility into a strong business pipeline exceeding $100 million. Our unwavering commitment to innovation has firmly established us as a global industry pioneer. Position Overview We’re looking for a hands‑on, strategic engineering leader to take ownership of our in‑house hardware and lead the full hardware development organization responsible for designing our cards and system‑level AI solutions built around the company’s accelerator chips. This role is deeply rooted in hardware engineering excellence—owning schematic design oversight, power delivery architecture, high‑speed board design, PCB layout quality, SI/PI methodologies, validation strategy, and the overall technical integrity of our products. You will partner closely with the Director of AI Integrated Systems, who drives product development strategy, and the technical roadmap prioritisation. Your focus will be on engineering execution and technical leadership required to deliver high‑performance, reliable, manufacturable hardware platforms. Key Responsibilities Serve as the technical authority for all hardware designs, guiding architecture, schematics, PCB stack‑ups, high‑speed routing, power delivery, SI/PI, thermal and mechanical engineering. Own end‑to‑end hardware execution—from design reviews and bring‑up to validation, reliability testing, DFM/DFT/DFR and mass‑production readiness. Oversee all hardware development activities in partnership with the Hardware R&D Manager, ensuring technical robustness, compliance, and performance across all products. Define and enforce engineering processes, documentation standards, validation methodologies, and quality gates across the organization. Identify and mitigate technical risks, resolve engineering escalations, and drive debugging and root‑cause analysis during development and early production. Partner with product technical leaders to ensure strong product requirements, architectural clarity, and lean, manufacturable design execution. Occasionally lead project technical execution when needed. Lead and mentor an experienced engineering organization, ensuring clear roles, accountability, and growth paths for senior technical talent. Align hardware execution with system integration, silicon, SDK/software, supply chain, productization, and operations. Partner with the division Director to translate product development strategy into actionable engineering plans, schedules, and development priorities. Qualifications 15+ years in hardware engineering for complex electronics products and 5+ years in senior leadership roles. Experience with embedded compute, firmware or board‑bring‑up; familiarity with structured NPI processes. Experience with high‑speed interfaces, power delivery/VRM, PCB layout in high density, thermal/mechanical design, simulations and product validation/compliance. Proven track record of delivering hardware designs into volume production. Hands‑on ability to review schematics, layouts, simulations, and lab validation data. Experience with AI accelerators is a plus. Experience with server‑level engineering is a plus. Leadership experience across multidisciplinary teams. Strong strategic thinker, excellent communicator and skilled at decision‑making in fast‑moving environments. Location Work from one of our Axelera AI offices (Leuven in Belgium, Amsterdam and Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Zurich in Switzerland, Florence and Milan in Italy or Bristol in the United Kingdom) if you're already based in the vicinity. Work fully remotely from any European country (incl. the UK) you are already in. Relocate with us and work from Italy (Florence or Milan) or the Netherlands (Amsterdam or Eindhoven). What We Offer This is your chance to shape and be part of a dynamic, fast‑growing, international organization. We offer an attractive compensation package, including a pension plan, extensive employee insurances and the option to get company shares. An open culture that supports creativity and continual innovation is awaiting you. Collaborative ownership and freedom with responsibility is characteristic for the way we act and work as a team. At Axelera AI, we wholeheartedly embrace equal opportunity and hold diversity in the highest regard. Our steadfast commitment is to cultivate a warm and inclusive environment that empowers and celebrates every member of our team. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds to join us in shaping the future of AI. #J-18808-Ljbffr