The engineers who get your chip to tapeout.
Confidential, specialist search for semiconductor and hardware teams. We find the architects, designers, and verification engineers who have actually shipped silicon, including the ones who never post a resume.
Every stage of the flow, staffed by people who've done it.
Click through the design flow to see the roles we recruit at each step, from spec to first silicon in the lab.
← → keys also step through the flow
Contingency search
Pay only when an engineer joins. Best for individual contributor roles with a clear spec.
Retained & confidential search
For leadership, stealth teams, and replacements you can't advertise. A dedicated, discreet search.
Contract & team builds
Contract engineers through a tapeout crunch, or several hires at once to stand up a new design team.
Recruiting Silicon Talent
A complete guide to finding, attracting, and hiring the engineers who build the future of semiconductors. Written for recruiters, talent leaders, and hiring managers who need to speak the language of ASIC, SoC, and hardware engineering.
Notes from the hardware talent market.
Short, practical reads on hiring in semiconductors. New issues post here.
Why verification engineers are the hardest seat to fill
Most chip teams need more DV engineers than designers, and the pool is smaller.
On a modern SoC, verification is often the largest share of engineering effort. Strong UVM and formal engineers are rarely on the market, so passive outreach and fast processes win. If your loop takes six weeks, your best candidate has already accepted elsewhere.
What "tapeout-ready" looks like on a resume
Titles vary wildly between companies. Here's what experienced hiring managers look for instead.
Look for shipped products, the node and block size they owned, and what they personally closed: timing, coverage, power, or bring-up. "Contributed to" and "owned" are very different signals. Ask which tapeouts went first-pass and what they changed after one that didn't.
AI silicon is reshaping who competes for talent
Hyperscalers and AI startups now recruit from the same pool as traditional chipmakers.
Custom accelerator programs have pulled hardware hiring well beyond traditional semiconductor companies. That means more competing offers for experienced architects and physical design leads. Teams that sell the technical problem, not just the package, tend to win the engineers they want.
Let's talk about your next tapeout.
Every conversation is confidential, whether you're building a team or quietly exploring your next role.