Neural Processing Core Architect

Snap Inc is a technology company. We believe the camera presents the greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. Snap contributes to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together. The Company’s three core products are Snapchat, a visual messaging app that enhances your relationships with friends, family, and the world; Lens Studio, an augmented reality platform that powers AR across Snapchat and other services; and its AR glasses, Spectacles.

The Spectacles team is pushing the boundaries of technology to bring people closer together in the real world. Our fifth-generation Spectacles, powered by Snap OS, showcase how standalone, see-through AR glasses make playing, learning, and working better together.

We’re looking for an Neural Processing Core Architect to join our team at Snap Inc! 

You will play a key role in defining and developing next-generation processor architectures for real-time Edge AI, enabling intelligent and adaptive capabilities on AR Glasses. Working from our Eindhoven office, you’ll collaborate closely with ML researchers, hardware engineers, and system architects worldwide to build processors that are deeply co-optimized for modern neural workloads — from super-resolution to compact language models/state-space models (LLMs, NLMs, SLMs, and state-space/Mamba). In addition, your role will involve:  

• Architect and prototype processor cores and compute subsystems specialized for AI workloads in ultra-low-power, real-time environments.

• Co-design neural network models and training methodologies that exploit hardware efficiency, including quantization-aware training, sparsity, and mixed-precision approaches.

• Define and carry out performance analysis on dataflows, instruction sets, and memory architectures optimized for end-to-end learning and inference on-device.

• Collaborate with machine learning teams to identify key model characteristics and map them to architectural primitives.

• Conduct performance, bandwidth, and power modeling to guide design decisions for AI processors and SoC integration.

• Prototype, benchmark, and iterate on architectures for super-resolution, generative, and/or language-based AI running at the edge.

• Work with cross-functional teams to integrate processor designs into hardware platforms and software toolchains.

• Contribute to Snap’s Edge AI roadmap, helping define the future of compute for always-on intelligent systems.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Deep understanding of computer architecture principles, especially as applied to AI accelerators and embedded processors.

• Strong knowledge of neural networks, including training optimization for hardware constraints (e.g., quantization, pruning).

• Experience with ML frameworks (PyTorch and/or TensorFlow).

• Familiarity with hardware modeling tools (eg, SystemC) and performance profiling.

• Solid grasp of AI workloads such as super-resolution, diffusion, language, and/or multimodal perception models.

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

• MSc or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field (PhD research may count as professional experience).

• Proven experience in processor or accelerator architecture design

• Experience with AI model optimization.

• Experience with hardware design (e.g. Verilog) and optimization.

• Strong analytical, programming, and documentation skills.

• Experience designing hardware-aware training and/or neural architectures optimized for embedded compute targets.

• Familiarity with hardware/ML co-design.

• Track record of research and/or publications in hardware-aware AI design and/or hardware  design for AI.
   

If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please don’t be shy and provide us some information.

"Default Together" Policy at Snap: At Snap Inc. we believe that being together in person helps us build our culture faster, reinforce our values, and serve our community, customers and partners better through dynamic collaboration. To reflect this, we practice a “default together” approach and expect our team members to work in an office 4+ days per week. 

At Snap, we believe that having a team of diverse backgrounds and voices working together will enable us to create innovative products that improve the way people live and communicate. Snap is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and committed to providing employment opportunities regardless of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected classification, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. EOE, including disability/vets.

Our Benefits: Snap Inc. is its own community, so we’ve got your back! We do our best to make sure you and your loved ones have everything you need to be happy and healthy, on your own terms. Our benefits are built around your needs and include paid parental leave, comprehensive medical coverage, emotional and mental health support programs, and compensation packages that let you share in Snap’s long-term success!