{"id":512756,"url":"https://alion.io/job/fractile-lead-ppa-engineer","title":"Lead RTL Designer (PPA Experience)","company":{"id":51523,"name":"Fractile","domain":"fractile.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/fractile","size_band":"11-50","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":93,"open_postings":36,"ghost_share":0.028,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":231,"computed_at":"2026-10-25T05:49:26Z"}},"role":"Hardware","role_family":"Hardware","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["London, United Kingdom","Bristol, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":94000,"max_usd":169000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":23},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Cadence Genus","optional":false},{"name":"Formal Verification","optional":false},{"name":"Synopsys Design Compiler","optional":false},{"name":"Synopsys Fusion Compiler","optional":false},{"name":"Synopsys PrimeTime","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-07T09:53:08Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-20","last_verified_at":"2026-10-25T14:34:14Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":48,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":["company_stale"],"days_open":47},"description":"Lead RTL Designer (PPA Experience)\nAbout Fractile\nFractile was founded in 2022 on the bet that, eventually, the world’s most capable AI systems would be limited in their impact by the time taken to produce useful outputs. We bet everything on the logical conclusion: that the only way to truly unlock this latent value, to make speed viable at scale, was to radically re-invent the hardware that we run our frontier AI models on. Ever since, we have been building chips and systems that tackle this problem: how to efficiently generate output at thousands of tokens per second, while handling the complexity and capacity challenges of operating large models at very long contexts.\nThe workloads that push to the limits of the current frontier are already transformational; it is the technical and economic limits on inference speed that are constraining progress. The defining work of the 21st century will be marked by the engine of inference delivering immense and diffuse chains of intellectual inquiry, in drug discovery, in software engineering, in materials discovery, in any field where progress is driven by deep reasoning and intelligence to resolve complex problems.\nRequirements:\nStrong datapath microarchitecture background: pipelining, retiming, and parallelism-vs-area trade-offs for PPA\nTrack record of driving datapath PPA closure end-to-end: identifying bottlenecks, proposing RTL changes, and validating impact against targets\nGood knowledge of fixed-point, floating-point, and/or quantized arithmetic design\nDeep understanding of PPA trade-off analysis, and the ability to translate PPA targets into concrete RTL and microarchitectural decisions\nExperience with low-power design techniques \nExperience writing timing-aware datapath RTL and iterating against synthesis/STA feedback to close timing on critical paths\nFamiliarity with synthesis tools (e.g. Synopsys Design Compiler/Fusion Compiler, Cadence Genus), and datapath IP/generator libraries (e.g. DesignWare)\nDemonstrated, measurable PPA improvements delivered on production datapath or compute silicon\nExperience with formal verification or equivalence checking\nPhysical design awareness sufficient to collaborate effectively with PD engineers on PPA closure \nNice to Have:\nExperience with AI/ML accelerator datapath (e.g. systolic arrays, MAC/tensor engines) or other high-performance compute chip architectures\nExperience with static timing analysis tools (e.g. PrimeTime, Tempus)How we work\nOwnership and execution: you will have full agency to drive your work forward\nRapid iteration: we all work directly with top leadership to move from idea to hardware on ambitious timelines\nFull-stack engagement: hardware, software, silicon, and modelling teams all work closely together to create a product with generational impact\nOptimistic and pragmatic: we possess the will to win, and to do the hard work to get us there\nTeam player mentality: the mission is bigger than any of us, and we have the curiosity and technical focus to see the best idea shipped, no matter who’s it is\nWhat we offer:\nCompetitive salary: A competitive salary reflective of your experience and the specialist nature of the role.\nEquity & Ownership: meaningful equity so everyone shares in the value creation.\nBenefits: Private Medical, Dental and Vision, Contributory Pension, 25 Days holiday plus bank holidays and Life/Critical Illness Insurance.\nDiverse & fun office: we believe the hardest problems get solved by the broadest range of minds. We are committed to Equal Employment Opportunity through attracting and retaining a diverse team and building an inclusive environment.Fractile is seeking to increase the clock speed of global progress, one chip at a time. We’ve recently raised $220M from investors including Founders Fund and Accel and our most important work lies ahead. Join us!\nExport controls\nOur work involves technologies subject to UK, US and other international export control regulations. Certain roles may require additional eligibility checks to ensure compliance with applicable law. We'll be transparent about this throughout the hiring process.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4124,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Processors, MCUs & AI Chips","AI Compute & Inference","AI Chips & Accelerators"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-07T15:54:13Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"GB","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"Licensed UK visa sponsor (Skilled Worker)","filings_12m":null,"filings_prev_12m":null,"green_card_filings_12m":null,"median_offered_wage_usd":null,"route":"Skilled Worker","cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-24T06:24:00+00:00","sources":["UK Home Office: register of licensed sponsors (workers)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":47,"expected_fill_days":231,"reasons":["conf:2","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-25T05:49:26Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/fractile-lead-ppa-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/fractile-lead-ppa-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-25T15:58:35Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":23001,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-26T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":51523},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=51523"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Ffractile-lead-ppa-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Ffractile-lead-ppa-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Ffractile-lead-ppa-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/fractile-lead-ppa-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Ffractile-lead-ppa-engineer"}]}