--- title: 'Research Engineer, Agentic EDA at Normal Computing Corporation' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/research-engineer-agentic-eda-normal-computing-corporation-new-york-n9n5s5w4myky' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-10' --- # Research Engineer, Agentic EDA at Normal Computing Corporation - **Company:** Normal Computing Corporation - **Location:** New York, NY - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-09-09 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/normalcomputing/f891ec6b-9d1c-4477-a643-08d1accfd3a3 ## Job description Normal Computing | Build with Us Normal is an applied AI company solving the hardest problems in AI and silicon. We build foundational hardware and software for the semiconductor industry, critical AI infrastructure, and the broader systems that power our world, in partnership with the world's most advanced institutions. We work as one team across New York City, Silicon Valley (Mountain View), London, Copenhagen, and Seoul. ## Your Role in Our Mission We’re hiring a Research Engineer to push the frontier of agentic LLMs and reinforcement learning for pushing the capabilities of Normal EDA, our agentic AI platform for semiconductor design automation. You’ll design and run experiments, build agents, curate datasets from complex technical artifacts, and create rigorous evaluations. You’ll write production‑quality research code and work closely with engineering to ship improvements to customers. ## Responsibilities - Build multi-agent systems for code generation that interact with EDA tools (e.g., simulations, waveform analysis, formal tools, physical design tools), propose fixes, and iterate through all stages of chip design and verification flows. - Build research prototypes that integrate with our production agentic code generation tool; collaborate to productionize wins. - Create RL environments and evaluations for agents, explore proxy rewards and consider speed/accuracy tradeoffs of custom tools. - Generate datasets from silicon collateral (e.g., RTL, testbenches, custom VIPs) sources such as RTL designs/VIPs/chip specifications/agent logs; generate synthetic data where appropriate; maintain data cards and licensing. - Analyze experiments with disciplined ablations; document results and drive progress with technical rigour. - Stay current on LLM agents, RL (offline/online, RLHF/RLAIF), constrained decoding, and program synthesis. What Makes You a Great Fit - PhD in CS/AI/ML (or equivalent research experience) with publications ideally in multi‑agent RL, agentic AI, or RL for language/code. - Strong Python and ML framework experience (PyTorch preferred; JAX/HF a plus). - Demonstrated ability to turn research into working systems - Experience designing evaluation environments and reward models for sequential/agentic tasks. - Experience and fluency with EDA tools (formal, simulation, physical design). - Comfortable with data acquisition/curation; good instincts about data quality and licenses. - Clear communicator who partners well with other engineers. Bonus Points - Research on program synthesis/codegen, constrained decoding, or execution‑based rewards. - Experience with offline RL from tool traces or human corrections. - Open‑source contributions (e.g., SkyRL, verl, RLlib, Transformers, Pytorch). - Familiarity with semiconductor/chip domains or other complex technical domains. - Track record of shipping research to production. ## Equal Employment Opportunity Statement Normal Computing is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected status. Accessibility Accommodations Normal Computing is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please let us know at accommodations@normalcomputing.com. Privacy Notice By submitting your application, you agree that Normal Computing may collect, use, and store your personal information for employment-related purposes in accordance with our Privacy Policy. ## About Normal Computing Corporation ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Normal Computing builds AI-accelerated EDA software and physics-based ASICs to enable ultra-efficient hardware for the AI era. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series B; total funding $92.5M) - **Headquarters**: New York, New York, USA - **Founded**: 2022 - **Founders**: Faris Sbahi (CEO), Matthias Tan (Co-Founder), and team of former Google Brain/Google X engineers and scientists ## Core Business - Primary industry: Semiconductor design (EDA) and custom silicon (ASICs), powered by AI and probabilistic computing. - Target customers: Large semiconductor design and manufacturing institutions (B2B, enterprise). - Mission: "Rewriting AI foundations to advance the frontier of reasoning and reliability in the physical world" and enabling a virtuous cycle of self-improving AI hardware. ## Products & Services - **[Normal EDA](https://normalcomputing.com/)**: An AI-driven electronic design automation platform that understands design intent from specification documents, generates hierarchical test plans with traceability, creates SystemVerilog stimulus, runs simulations, and tracks coverage. It continuously learns from team feedback to accelerate verification for complex chip designs. - **[Normal ASICs](https://normalcomputing.com/)**: Physics-based custom ASICs that relax traditional computing assumptions (stochastic, stateful, asynchronous) to unlock orders-of-magnitude more efficient compute. Designed to converge hardware with the physical dynamics of AI models. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed. - **Key Metric**: **Total Funding** – $92.5M across multiple rounds (Seed, Venture, Grant, Series B). Notable recent round: $50M led by **Samsung Catalyst** in March 2026 [normalcomputing.com](https://normalcomputing.com/). - **Notable Investors**: Samsung Catalyst Fund, Intel Ignite, First Spark Ventures, Celesta Capital, ARIA. Also partners with Fraunhofer IESE (DRAMBench benchmark). - **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew **196.3% YoY** to 54 employees; operates across 6 countries (US, UK, Denmark, Switzerland, India, Canada); actively building open-source tools (e.g., a Verilog simulator built with AI: 580K lines in 43 days). ## Competitive Advantages - **Physics-First Approach**: Unlike traditional digital logic, Normal’s ASICs embrace stochastic, stateful, and asynchronous computing – aligning hardware with the physics of AI models for dramatic efficiency gains. - **Full-Stack Co-Design**: The combination of AI-native EDA tools and custom silicon creates a closed loop where software and hardware are co-optimized, shortening time-to-market and enabling workload-specific ASICs. - **Deep AI Heritage**: Founders and team hail from Google Brain and Google X, bringing deep expertise in probabilistic ML, quantum AI, and physical-world reasoning. ## Strategic Focus - **Scaling EDA Adoption**: Expanding Normal EDA’s use among top semiconductor companies to "make chip design look more like software". - **AI Hardware Energy Crisis**: Tackling soaring power demands of AI by delivering ultra-efficient ASICs that can be produced for every workload. - **Open-Source & Research**: Building community trust through open benchmarks (DRAMBench) and tools (CIRCT-based verification), while advancing formal methods and AI-driven simulation. ## Why Work Here - **Hybrid Workspace**: Flexible in-office collaboration at offices in **New York (Flatiron HQ)**, **San Francisco**, **London**, and **Copenhagen**. In-person collaboration is valued but with flexibility; free lunch, snacks, and beverages in office. - **Lean, High-Impact Team**: Small team (54 employees) where every member drives significant impact, works directly with customers, and owns meaningful parts of the product. - **Interdisciplinary Challenges**: Work spans AI, probabilistic software, hardware, physics, and full-stack engineering – ideal for curious, passionate problem-solvers. - **Strong Growth Trajectory**: Rapid headcount growth (+196% YoY), recent $50M Series B, and partnerships with industry giants signal a well-funded, high-potential startup. ## Sources 1. [normalcomputing.com](https://normalcomputing.com/) 2. [normalcomputing.com/about](https://normalcomputing.com/about) 3. [linkedin.com/company/normal-computing-corporation](https://www.linkedin.com/company/normal-computing-corporation) 4. [builtin.com/company/normal-computing](https://builtin.com/company/normal-computing) 5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/normalcomputing](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/normalcomputing) ## Other roles at Normal Computing Corporation - [Hardware Engineer, System Design](https://feeny.ai/job/hardware-engineer-system-design-normal-computing-corporation-silicon-valley-ewmb4smy3n8k) — Silicon Valley - [Software Engineer, Terminal Interface](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-terminal-interface-normal-computing-corporation-new-york-4wm9d2tfm0ja) — New York, NY - [Talent Operations Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/talent-operations-specialist-normal-computing-corporation-silicon-valley-rj0rjeg87g4x) — Silicon Valley - [Thermodynamic Hardware Resident](https://feeny.ai/job/thermodynamic-hardware-resident-normal-computing-corporation-new-york-jg4avbjrxt43) — New York, NY - [AI Research Resident](https://feeny.ai/job/ai-research-resident-normal-computing-corporation-new-york-44frw5ybhavm) — New York, NY - [Hardware Engineer, Lead Architect](https://feeny.ai/job/hardware-engineer-lead-architect-normal-computing-corporation-silicon-valley-6fvq60qmptdw) — Silicon Valley - [Hardware Engineer, FPGA](https://feeny.ai/job/hardware-engineer-fpga-normal-computing-corporation-new-york-4v6epje87dne) — New York, NY - [Software Engineer, Agent Systems](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-agent-systems-normal-computing-corporation-new-york-9mc74m2d7yp9) — New York, NY - [Research Engineer, Domain Scaling](https://feeny.ai/job/research-engineer-domain-scaling-normal-computing-corporation-new-york-f308m76kzev4) — New York, NY - [Hardware Engineer, RTL](https://feeny.ai/job/hardware-engineer-rtl-normal-computing-corporation-new-york-ea9vqkyz7zey) — New York, NY