Senior AI Architect (Systems & Algorithms)
Research & development - Eindhoven | More than two weeks ago
Senior AI Architect (Systems & Algorithms)
Lead the development of energy efficient EdgeAI system architectures for robotics, drones, humanoids, and automotive systems.
Imec Netherlands has established a world-leading track record on the design of novel sensors for human health applications and ultra-low-power IoT devices in general. For instance, our teams continue to develop innovations in implantable therapeutics, medical/wearable devices, environmental monitoring, accurate localization, and many other fields. At our HQ in Leuven, Belgium we are world-renowned for pioneering new process technologies in collaboration with industrial foundries and with the broader semiconductor ecosystem. Imec’s research tracks enable unique opportunities for end-to-end innovations.
The team at imec Netherlands develops innovative solutions for both the Life Science and Medical Device domain, as well as large-scale, heterogeneous sensor networks that connect billions of devices within the Internet of Things (IoT). We have built various ultra-low-power (ULP) radio ICs, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth-LE, and a UWB 6-10 GHz radio tuned towards precise ranging and localization. Additionally, we are advancing a wide range of neuro-inspired architectures, efficiently implementing them in ICs across multiple computational domains, such as spiking neural networks, online and on-chip learning, sparse coding, and dynamic control. Our novel technologies will enable a wide range of smart IoT applications. Furthermore, we deliver our designs to customers, secure patents for the different inventions, and share our findings through publications in renowned conferences and journals, including ISSCC, ICC, WCNC, JSSC, and ISCAS.
As a Senior AI Architect (Systems & Algorithms), you will drive the design and deployment of next-generation Edge AI systems, spanning algorithm development, system design, and hardware aware optimization. You will bridge AI algorithms, system‑level architecture, and hardware implementation, contributing to inference‑centric designs, silicon roadmaps, and collaborative EU research programs with leading industrial partners.
What you will do
As a Senior AI Architect, you will design and deploy EdgeAI algorithms and system architectures for constrained platforms, developing and optimizing emerging models (e.g., transformers, state-space models, SNNs, HDC, sparse and quantized networks) on edge hardware. You will drive dataflow, memory, and HW/SW codesign in close collaboration with IC, sensor, and system teams, build end-to-end demonstrators, and contribute to research, EU projects, and mentoring activities.
Your responsibilities as a Senior AI Architect include:
- Design and develop EdgeAI solutions spanning Artificial Intelligence algorithms, software stacks, and system level architectures for constrained platforms.
- Develop, adapt, and evaluate emerging EdgeAI models, including:
1. Transformer-based and attention efficient networks
2. State-space Models (e.g., S4, Mamba like architectures)
3. Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs)
4. Hyperdimensional Computing (HDC)
5. Sparse, quantized, and event-driven models - Deploy and optimize AI workloads on edge platforms (GPU, NPU, DPU, FPGA, SoC), targeting tight constraints on latency, power, memory, and throughput.
- Contribute to system and chip level design, including:
1. Dataflow definition and workload mapping
2. Memory hierarchy and bandwidth considerations
3. HW/SW partitioning and accelerator trade-offs
(The role allows for continued development of deep system architecture expertise.) - Build and evaluate end-to-end demonstrators, from sensing and data acquisition to inference and system level benchmarking.
- Collaborate closely with IC, sensor, and system teams to translate algorithmic requirements into architectural and silicon-level implications.
- Conduct research and innovation activities, contributing to publications, patents, and internal technology roadmaps.
- Lead and contribute to project proposals for acquisition of national and EU funding, taking an active role in executing approved projects.
- Interact with customers and academic partners as a technical interface for existing and new collaborations.
What we do for you
As a Senior AI Architect at imec the Netherlands you get the chance to scale future computing beyond what is possible with silicon CMOS. In collaboration with your colleagues, you will work on a number of challenges to the design of efficient (brain-like) chips: scalable, energy-efficient, highly flexible network architectures that can learn with incredible efficiency.Imec The Netherlands, as an employer of choice, offers you an attractive compensation and benefits package including a 100% employer-paid pension plan and flexible working hours. Furthermore, imec offers a wide range of training possibilities. For international candidates, we provide support in the relocation process.
Who you are
Required qualifications
- PhD in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a closely related field.
- At least 5 years of relevant experience in AI research and development, including industrial or applied research environments.
- Strong background in AI algorithms for Edge or embedded systems.
- Hands-on experience with programming, training, deploying, and optimizing models, using frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, ONNX, etc.
- Demonstrated experience deploying AI on real hardware platforms, with performance and energy evaluation.
- Solid understanding of system level constraints (power, memory, bandwidth, latency) and their impact on algorithm and model design.
- Interest and capability to contribute to system and chip level architecture design for AI accelerators and SoCs.
- Experience in programming (C and C++) and scripting languages (Python, Bash).
- Experience contributing to research activities, such as publications, patents, demonstrators, or internal technology development.
- Proactive and hands-on mindset, demonstrating initiative, adaptability, and problem-solving skills in a dynamic environment.
- Ability to work independently and collaboratively in an interdisciplinary research environment.
- Your communication, scientific writing and presentation skills in English are excellent.
Preferred qualifications
- Prior experience in AI system architecture, HW/SW codesign, or accelerator design.
- Familiarity with FPGA/ASIC flows, memory-centric or accelerator-based architectures.
- Experience with highlevel design and modelling, such as HighLevel Synthesis (HLS) and/or SystemC, for architecture exploration or hardware prototyping.