Semiconductor & Chip Design Engineer

Opportunity Overview

Handshake is looking for experienced Semiconductor and Chip Design Engineers to support AI research through flexible, part-time contract work. This is not a traditional engineering role—you’ll draw on your hands-on industry experience in chip design, EDA, VLSI, semiconductor process engineering, or verification to evaluate AI-generated content and provide feedback that helps AI reason like a practicing chip engineer.

This is an ongoing, project-based opportunity that you can take on alongside your current role.

What You’ll Do

• Create expert-level semiconductor and chip engineering problems and scenarios grounded in real design, verification, implementation, fabrication, and tape-out workflows

• Review AI-generated responses for technical accuracy, practical feasibility, and alignment with industry standards and engineering practice

• Evaluate designs, methodologies, assumptions, and recommendations involving digital and analog IC design, RTL, verification, physical design, EDA flows, semiconductor processes, and related topics

• Assess AI-generated technical work across areas such as synthesis, simulation, timing analysis, physical implementation, design-rule checking, layout, verification, and tape-out

• Provide clear, structured written feedback to help improve AI model performance

• Complete tasks at your own pace, with no set schedule or minimum-hour requirement

Project Details

• Work remotely and asynchronously from wherever you are.

• Set your own schedule with no minimum time requirement.

• Project placement depends on current availability. If this opportunity is full, additional projects will become available soon.

Qualifications

Ideal candidates meet all three of the following:

• Industry experience — 2+ years of hands-on chip design, semiconductor, or related engineering experience in industry

• Degree — MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a closely related field. A BS in Electrical or Computer Engineering also qualifies when paired with strong industry experience

• Chip and semiconductor expertise — demonstrated depth in one or more of the following areas:

• Digital or analog IC design

• VLSI and RTL design

• Functional or formal verification

• Physical design, place and route, and timing closure

• EDA tools and semiconductor design flows

• Semiconductor fabrication and process engineering

• Design-for-test (DFT), synthesis, or implementation

• Layout, design-rule checking, and tape-out

• ASIC, SoC, FPGA, or related chip development

Additional Qualifications

These are not required but will strengthen your application:

• Proficiency with industry-standard EDA and chip-design tools such as Cadence Virtuoso, Innovus, Synopsys Design Compiler, PrimeTime, VCS, Mentor/Siemens Calibre, ModelSim/Questa, Vivado, Quartus, or comparable tools

• Experience with Verilog, SystemVerilog, VHDL, SPICE, or other hardware-description and circuit-simulation languages

• Experience with synthesis, static timing analysis, place and route, physical verification, DRC/LVS, parasitic extraction, or other production semiconductor workflows

• Experience with formal verification, UVM, simulation, coverage analysis, or other verification methodologies

• Experience with semiconductor process technologies, foundry design rules, PDKs, yield analysis, or process integration

• Experience at a semiconductor manufacturer, chip-design company, EDA company, engineering consultancy, or recognized employer such as Intel, NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Apple, Arm, Synopsys, Cadence, or Siemens EDA

Required for All Applicants

• Based in the United States

• Strong written communication and attention to detail

• Ability to explain complex semiconductor and chip-design concepts clearly

• Ability to work independently in a remote, asynchronous environment