About this role
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
