RTL Lead - Physical AI Compute

About Velaura

Velaura is building the next generation of compute platforms for Physical AI.

As AI moves beyond the datacenter into robots, autonomous mobile systems, drones, and other embodied systems, traditional compute architectures are increasingly constrained by power, memory bandwidth, latency, and real-time requirements.

Our mission is to develop the foundational compute technologies that enable intelligent systems to operate efficiently in the physical world.

We are assembling a small team of exceptional architects and engineers to rethink how AI, sensing, memory, and control interact within a modern computing platform.

The Role

We are seeking an experienced RTL Lead to help drive the implementation of Velaura's next-generation Physical AI SoC.

This role combines architectural influence with hands-on technical leadership. You will work closely with system architects, AI architects, performance modelers, and software engineers to transform innovative architectural concepts into production-quality silicon.

The ideal candidate is equally comfortable discussing system-level tradeoffs and reviewing critical RTL microarchitecture. You should enjoy solving challenging technical problems, mentoring engineers, and helping build a high-performance engineering culture.

Responsibilities

* Lead RTL development across key portions of the Velaura SoC.

* Collaborate with architects to translate system requirements into robust microarchitectures.

* Drive hardware/software co-design across AI workloads, memory systems, runtime software, and system architecture.

* Partner closely with software teams to define programming models, execution flows, memory hierarchies, and performance-critical interfaces.

* Drive design decisions across compute engines, memory subsystems, interconnect, control logic, and system infrastructure.

* Develop high-quality, power-efficient, and scalable RTL implementations.

* Conduct architecture and RTL reviews to ensure performance, power, and area goals are achieved.

* Work closely with performance modeling, verification, physical design, and software teams throughout the development cycle.

* Help establish engineering processes and design methodologies as the organization grows.

* Mentor and develop other RTL engineers.

Desired Experience

* Strong RTL design experience in complex SoCs, CPUs, GPUs, AI accelerators, networking devices, or related systems.

* Deep understanding of digital design fundamentals and microarchitecture.

* Experience with Verilog/System Verilog and modern RTL development methodologies.

* Familiarity with memory systems, interconnect fabrics, cache hierarchies, and system-level data movement.

* Experience balancing performance, power, area, and design complexity.

* Proven ability to drive complex technical projects from concept through silicon bring-up.

* Experience with hardware/software co-design and performance optimization across the full system stack.

* Familiarity with AI runtimes, operating systems, firmware, drivers, or other system software layers is highly desirable.

Nice to Have

* Experience with AI accelerators, machine learning hardware, or edge AI platforms.

* Experience with robotics, autonomous systems, automotive, aerospace, or other real-time computing environments.

* Knowledge of low-power design techniques and power management architectures.

Compensation & Benefits?

At Velaura, we believe exceptional talent deserves exceptional rewards. Compensation for this role includes a competitive base salary, performance-based incentives, and equity participation, allowing team members to share in the company's long-term success. The base pay range for this role is between $200k and $500k, and your base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.

In addition to compensation, Velaura offers a comprehensive benefits package that may include medical, dental, and vision coverage, paid time off, flexible work arrangements, professional development opportunities, and other benefits designed to support the well-being and growth of our team.

Velaura is committed to pay equity and transparency, and we regularly benchmark compensation to ensure we remain competitive in the market.

Why Velaura?

This is an opportunity to help define a new class of computing architecture at a time when the industry is undergoing fundamental change.

You will work alongside experienced leaders and architects who have previously delivered industry-defining products across mobile, cloud, and AI platforms.

If you are excited by difficult technical problems, clean-sheet architecture, and the opportunity to shape the future of Physical AI, we would love to hear from you.