---
title: 'Director - Silicon Product & Test Engineering at Axelera AI'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/director-silicon-product-test-engineering-axelera-ai-bristol-2c7eqa5c91zp'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-12'
---

# Director - Silicon Product & Test Engineering at Axelera AI

- **Company:** Axelera AI
- **Location:** Bristol, United Kingdom
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-05-26
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/axelera/76a02d45-2560-4d08-8289-02c8f7efb24e/application

**Skills:** ATE platforms, Test program development, Reliability physics, Qualification methodology, DFT, Silicon debug, FA workflows, Test economics, Manufacturing economics, OSAT management, Foundry management, AEC-Q100, Datacentre qualification, AI hardware

> Lead end-to-end silicon product engineering and validation lab operations from tapeout to volume production. Own ATE strategy, NPI governance, and external partner relationships while building and mentoring technical teams in a high-growth semiconductor environment.

## 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 You'll own Silicon Product Engineering and our Bristol validation lab end-to-end — from tapeout through NPI to volume production — and lead the teams that get us there. The NPI Engineering Manager and Lab Manager report to you; you report to the executive team and partner closely with Design, Sales, and our external manufacturing ecosystem. This is a director-level leadership role. It needs someone with the technical depth to make sound ATE, NPI and OSAT calls and earn senior engineers' respect, plus the commercial judgement to own budgets, headcount, and the day-to-day running of two technical departments as we scale across concurrent chip programs.

Key responsibilities: Product engineering & strategy

- The product engineering roadmap across all silicon programs, from tapeout planning to high-volume manufacturing
- ATE strategy and major NPI decisions: build-vs-buy, test-coverage trade-offs, OSAT selection
- Tapeout-to-production timelines — surfacing risk early and coordinating resolution across design, validation, and partners
- Product qualification strategy for datacentre and automotive markets
- NPI governance: phase gates, cross-functional reviews, executive reporting

External partners

- Strategic relationships with OSATs, ATE vendors, foundries, and test houses — selection, negotiation, production readiness
- Test program transfer, ramp, and ongoing yield improvement with OSAT and foundry partners

Bristol lab

- Evolving the validation lab into a scalable, well-run operation; owning its budget, standards, and safety
- Through the Lab Manager, overseeing silicon bring-up, characterization, and production test development
- Ensuring validation capability (power, JTAG/scan, signal integrity, thermal) keeps pace with the roadmap

## Team

- Building, leading, and mentoring a multidisciplinary team of test engineers, validation engineers, and lab technicians
- Recruiting and retaining senior talent in a competitive market
- Translating executive strategy into clear direction, and representing both functions to the exec team, board, and key customers

What we are looking for:

- A background spanning product, test, assembly, and qualification of complex SoCs — ideally including hands-on lab time and exposure to startup or high-growth environments
- Deep command of ATE platforms and test program development, from early silicon to volume
- Strong grasp of reliability physics and qualification methodology, including automotive and datacentre standards
- Working knowledge of DFT, silicon debug/FA workflows, and test/manufacturing economics
- A proven track record leading and scaling technical teams in fast-moving semiconductor environments
- Senior-level OSAT/foundry/test-house management, including commercial negotiation
- Director-level department ownership: budgets, headcount, resourcing
- Strong executive communication — able to take complex technical topics to a board-level audience
- Comfort building process and infrastructure from scratch, and making high-impact calls with incomplete information

Nice to have: automotive (AEC-Q100) or datacentre qualification experience; prior time in AI hardware or a high-growth deep-tech startup.

Success in the first 12 months

- Next chip program brought up and qualified on schedule
- Current products transitioned into qualified, cost-effective production
- A clear, executive-aligned test and product engineering strategy across all active programs
- A better-structured, better-equipped, better-controlled Bristol lab
- Key OSAT and foundry partnerships strengthened and formalised

Location

- Our Bristol (UK) office in an on-site / hybrid capacity.

## 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 - Hardware Engineering, AI Infrastructure Systems](https://feeny.ai/job/director-hardware-engineering-ai-infrastructure-systems-axelera-ai-europe-e4ab9s5wg45n) — Europe
- [Director - Silicon Logical Design](https://feeny.ai/job/director-silicon-logical-design-axelera-ai-europe-dd7rtejdxg8q) — Europe