---
title: 'Director - Hardware Engineering, AI Infrastructure Systems at Axelera AI'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/director-hardware-engineering-ai-infrastructure-systems-axelera-ai-europe-e4ab9s5wg45n'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-12'
---

# Director - Hardware Engineering, AI Infrastructure Systems at Axelera AI

- **Company:** Axelera AI
- **Location:** Europe
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-05-18
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/axelera/0122a0ab-3f54-4ade-a21f-4e30425e1aa2/application

**Skills:** Hardware engineering, PCB design, High-speed interfaces (PCIe Gen4/5/6, CXL, SerDes), Server memory architecture, Power delivery and VRM design, SI/PI methodology, BMC-based platform management, Redfish/IPMI, UEFI/BIOS firmware, Secure boot and root-of-trust, Enterprise RAS features, Datacenter thermal and mechanical design, Direct liquid cooling, Immersion-ready platforms, DFM/DFT/DFR, NPI and ramp, Tier-1 CM/ODM management, AI accelerator platforms, GPU or custom silicon experience, Sovereign AI programs

> Establish and lead the AI Infrastructure Systems division, building the team and owning end-to-end delivery of datacenter-class AI accelerator hardware. Define technical roadmaps for server platforms, manage engineering processes, and partner with internal and external stakeholders to drive product development and c...

## Job description

## About Us

[Axelera AI](https://www.axelera.ai) is not your regular deep-tech company. We are creating the next-generation AI platform to support anyone who wants to help advancing humanity and improve the world around us. In just five years, we have raised a total of $370 million and have built a world-class team of 250+ employees (including 60+ PhDs with more than 40,000 citations), both remotely from 20 different countries and with offices in Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, the UK, headquartered at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, Netherlands. We have also launched our Metis™ AI Platform, which achieves a 3-5x increase in efficiency and performance, and have visibility into a strong business pipeline exceeding $100 million. Our unwavering commitment to innovation has firmly established us as a global industry pioneer. Are you up for the challenge?

Position Overview We are looking for an entrepreneurial, technically exceptional engineering leader to establish and run Axelera’s AI Infrastructure Systems division within the AI Integrated Systems (AIS) group. This is a new function, created to realize and deliver our next-generation accelerator silicon into datacenter-class form factors from PCIe accelerator cards and OAM-class modules to full 1U/2U rack systems and dense compute nodes targeting enterprise AI, sovereign cloud and HPC customers. You will build the team, shape the technical roadmap, and own end-to-end delivery of board- and system-level products for two strategic programmes. You will partner closely with the engineering leadership of the Embedded AI product line within AIS, System and Platform Architecture within R&D, the silicon organisation, the Voyager SDK/software group, and Axelera’s go-to-market teams serving hyperscalers, sovereign AI initiatives and the European HPC ecosystem. This role is deeply hands-on, owning implementation, validation, and delivery of platform systems. You will review schematics and layouts, challenge power and thermal budgets, shape the BMC and platform-firmware stack, and walk the lab floor during bring-up. Strategic leadership without technical depth will not work here.

Key responsibilities:

- Build the Infrastructure Systems engineering team from the ground up: hire, structure and mentor a multidisciplinary organisation covering hardware architecture, PCB design, power/thermal/mechanical engineering, firmware and platform validation with in-house and 3rd-party resources
- Define the technical roadmap for the division’s board- and system-level server products—PCIe Gen6/CXL accelerator cards, OAM modules and UBB baseboards, and full 1U/2U rack systems, evolving toward rack-scale solutions including networking fabric and storage architecture—aligned with the next-generation system and silicon roadmap.
- Serve as the technical authority across system implementation, including schematics, PCB stack-ups, high-speed signaling (PCIe Gen5/6, CXL, high-speed SerDes), enterprise memory, power delivery and VRM design, SI/PI methodology, and mechanical/thermal integration.
- Own end-to-end execution from concept through design reviews, bring-up, validation, reliability qualification, DFM/DFT/DFR and mass-production readiness, including NPI and ramp with tier-1 CMs and ODMs. Make the build-vs-partner call on each program leading designs in-house where it differentiates, and co-designing with ODM partners where time-to-market or scale demands it.
- Drive datacenter-grade platform engineering: BMC-based management, Redfish/IPMI, UEFI/BIOS firmware, secure boot and root-of-trust, platform firmware resilience, enterprise RAS features, and out-of-band telemetry.
- Lead the thermal and mechanical strategy for high-power accelerator platforms, including air-cooled rack designs and, where appropriate, direct liquid cooling (DLC) and immersion-ready variants.
- Partner with the Embedded AI engineering leadership within AIS to align board and system-level execution across the two product lines, sharing reference designs, validation assets and CM/ODM relationships wherever it accelerates both streams.
- Collaborate with Platform Architecture, product management, silicon, SDK and software teams to refine and realize platform requirements (e.g. memory topology, interconnect, power states, telemetry) so that the server products showcase the accelerator’s capabilities at rack and cluster scale.
- Engage directly with strategic customers, system integrators and ecosystem partners (hyperscalers, sovereign cloud operators, HPC centres, OEMs/ODMs) to shape requirements and win design-ins.
- Define and enforce engineering processes, documentation standards, validation methodologies and quality gates for the new division, mapped to Axelera’s NPD framework.
- Identify and mitigate technical risks, resolve engineering escalations, and drive debugging and root-cause analysis during development, qualification and early production.
- Own the division’s engineering budget, CAPEX, external engineering spend and vendor relationships.

Qualifications:

- 15+ years in hardware engineering for complex electronics products, with at least 5 years in senior leadership roles running multidisciplinary teams.
- Proven track record of shipping datacenter- or server-class compute hardware into volume production: accelerator cards, OAM modules, UBB baseboards, GPU/xPU-class server platforms, compute nodes or rack-level systems.
- Deep expertise in high-speed interfaces (PCIe Gen4/5/6, CXL, high-speed SerDes), server memory, high-current power delivery and VRM design, and high-density PCB layout with rigorous SI/PI methodology.
- Experience with BMC-based platform management, Redfish/IPMI, UEFI/BIOS or equivalent firmware stacks, secure boot/root-of-trust, and enterprise RAS features.
- Working knowledge of datacenter thermal and mechanical design: air-cooled 1U/2U chassis, direct liquid cooling and/or immersion-ready platforms, and rack power delivery at 12V, 48V and OCP power-shelf level.
- Familiarity with datacenter and AI infrastructure compliance and with PCIe and OCP standards.
- Experience working with tier-1 CMs/ODMs on server-class products, including DFM, MP transfer, yield ramp and sustaining engineering.
- Hands-on ability to review schematics, layouts, simulation results and lab validation data and to make the call when the team is stuck.
- Strong strategic thinker, excellent communicator, skilled at decision-making in fast-moving environments, comfortable engaging at C-level with customers and partners.

Preference:

- Experience building or significantly scaling an engineering team is strongly preferred.
- Experience with AI accelerator platforms, GPUs or custom silicon in a datacenter context is a strong plus.
- Exposure to sovereign AI, EuroHPC, HPC or European defence/dual-use datacenter programmes is a plus .
- Fluent English required; additional European language is a plus.

Location We offer a flexible working arrangement, with options to:

- Work from one of our Axelera AI offices (Florence and Milan in Italy, Amsterdam and Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Leuven in Belgium, Paris in France, Zurich in Switzerland, or Bristol in the United Kingdom) if you're already based in the vicinity.
- Work fully remotely from the US or any European country (incl. the UK) you are already in.
- Relocate with us and work from Amsterdam or Eindhoven in the Netherlands, or Bologna, Florence or Milan in Italy.

## What we offer

This is your chance to shape and be part of a dynamic, fast-growing, international organisation. We offer an attractive compensation package, including a pension plan, extensive employee insurances and the option to get company shares. An open culture that supports creativity and continual innovation is awaiting you. Collaborative ownership and freedom with responsibility is characteristic for the way we act and work as a team.

At Axelera AI, we wholeheartedly embrace equal opportunity and hold diversity in the highest regard. Our steadfast commitment is to cultivate a warm and inclusive environment that empowers and celebrates every member of our team. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds to join us in shaping the future of AI.

## About Axelera AI

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Axelera AI develops cutting-edge AI hardware and software platforms for accelerating inference at the edge, using proprietary digital in-memory computing technology.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series C)
- **Headquarters**: Eindhoven, Netherlands
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Not publicly listed on primary sources

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: AI Hardware (Semiconductors), Edge AI Inference, Computer Vision
- **Target customers**: B2B, Enterprise, and SMBs across industrial manufacturing, security & surveillance, retail, robotics, and healthcare
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "To lead the democratization of Artificial Intelligence, offering faster, easy-to-use AI acceleration while minimizing power and cost, to simplify AI at the Edge." [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/our-story)

## Products & Services
- **Metis® AIPU (AI Processing Unit)**: A family of edge inference accelerators starting at 214 TOPs, available in M.2 and PCIe form factors (1-AIPU and 4-AIPU cards). Delivers 15 TOPs/W energy efficiency. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/)
- **Europa® AIPU**: A higher-performance AI accelerator (629 TOPs) for demanding edge and near-edge workloads, setting a new industry benchmark for performance, power efficiency, and affordability. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/)
- **Titania® Chiplet**: A future chiplet designed to scale the D-IMC architecture from edge to cloud. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/our-story)
- **Voyager® SDK**: A software development kit with 100+ pre-optimized models, enabling deployment from model to production in hours, not weeks. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/)
- **Metis AI Platform**: Complete edge AI systems (M.2 and PCIe accelerator cards) bundling the Metis AIPU with the Voyager SDK for computer vision applications. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Total Funding**: Over $450 million in equity, grants, and venture debt since founding (July 2021). This includes a $250M+ Series C (the largest investment ever in an EU AI semiconductor company), led by Innovation Industries, with new investors BlackRock and SiteGround Capital. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/our-story)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of $468.21M (per CB Insights). [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/axelera-ai)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Innovation Industries, European Innovation Council Fund, Invest-NL, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Verve Ventures, CDP Venture Capital SGR, Bitfury, Federal Holding and Investment Company of Belgium (SFPIM), imec, BlackRock, SiteGround Capital. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/our-story)
- **Growth Signals**: Ranked #3 in the Emerging Enterprise (201-999 Employees) category on Fast Company’s 2026 Most Innovative Companies list. Has taped out four chips since founding. Announced the Europa AIPU and Titania chiplet. Secured up to €61.6m from the EuroHPC DARE project. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/our-story)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Proprietary Digital In-Memory Computing (D-IMC)**: Performs matrix-vector multiplications in-place, eliminating data movement and delivering 50+ TOPs per core at FP32-equivalent accuracy. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/)
- **Industry-Leading Energy Efficiency**: 15 TOPs/W, enabling high-performance AI inference at the edge without power or thermal constraints. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/)
- **Full-Stack Solution**: Combines purpose-built hardware (AIPUs) with the Voyager SDK (100+ models, post-training quantization) for rapid deployment, significantly reducing time-to-value compared to GPU-based alternatives. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/)
- **Scalable Architecture**: D-IMC and RISC-V dataflow architecture scales from edge to cloud via the Titania chiplet roadmap. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/our-story)

## Strategic Focus
- **Democratizing AI**: Making high-performance AI inference accessible, affordable, and energy-efficient for any environment (edge to cloud). [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/our-story)
- **Commercial Expansion**: Scaling global commercial growth following the $250M+ Series C, with a focus on building out sales and field application engineering teams in EMEA and the Americas. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/careers)
- **Ecosystem & Partnerships**: Recently announced six new partnerships to expand the edge AI ecosystem. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/)
- **Product Roadmap**: Scaling the D-IMC platform from edge (Metis) to near-edge (Europa) to cloud (Titania chiplet), targeting a full range of inference use cases. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/our-story)

## Why Work Here
- **High-Growth Environment**: A well-funded deep-tech startup (over $450M raised) with rapid commercial traction, ranked #3 on Fast Company’s 2026 Most Innovative Companies list. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/careers)
- **Global & Remote-First Culture**: 248+ talented colleagues from 34 nationalities across 18 locations, with a strong remote/hybrid work policy. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/careers)
- **Cutting-Edge Technology**: Work on proprietary D-IMC and RISC-V dataflow architecture, with a roadmap spanning edge to cloud. The team includes 39 PhDs. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/careers)
- **Benefits**: Remote/flexible work, premium insurance, commute benefit, team-building activities, premium pension, work-life balance, cutting-edge equipment, fresh fruit at the office, and modern facilities. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/careers)
- **Values-Driven Culture**: Values include "Think," "Focus on the Customer," "Move Fast," "Communicate Openly," and "Agree & Commit." Emphasis on freedom with responsibility. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/careers)
- **Diverse & International**: 34 nationalities, average age 50+, with offices in Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, the UK, and headquarters in Eindhoven. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/careers)

## Sources
1. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/)
2. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/our-story)
3. [axelera.ai](https://axelera.ai/careers)
4. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/axelera-ai)
5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/axelera)

## Other roles at Axelera AI

- [(Senior) Field Application Engineer - India](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-field-application-engineer-india-axelera-ai-india-tjpzd0600zy2) — India
- [UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF)](https://feeny.ai/job/uk-electronics-skills-foundation-ukesf-axelera-ai-united-kingdom-g906h2fnn597) — United Kingdom
- [Finance Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/finance-manager-axelera-ai-eindhoven-evpadxr3z9rc) — Eindhoven, Netherlands
- [VP - People](https://feeny.ai/job/vp-people-axelera-ai-eindhoven-kptp5mp33abx) — Eindhoven, Netherlands
- [System Architect – Datacenter Hardware](https://feeny.ai/job/system-architect-datacenter-hardware-axelera-ai-europe-pw22t9mp517c) — Europe
- [Advanced Packaging & Power Delivery Senior Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/advanced-packaging-power-delivery-senior-engineer-axelera-ai-europe-0jqbdy2ytvqn) — Europe
- [Ecosystem Integration Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/ecosystem-integration-engineer-axelera-ai-taiwan-8ymx2171c956) — Taiwan
- [Director - Silicon Product & Test Engineering](https://feeny.ai/job/director-silicon-product-test-engineering-axelera-ai-bristol-2c7eqa5c91zp) — Bristol, United Kingdom
- [Director - Silicon Logical Design](https://feeny.ai/job/director-silicon-logical-design-axelera-ai-europe-dd7rtejdxg8q) — Europe