Cadence Design Systems Inc
Principal Applied ML Engineer
San Jose, California, USA · Principal · full-time
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odds of building a lasting career here
Sponsors, but it's cap-subject — you still face the weighted lottery (~61% per draw at Level IV). Good if you win; have a cap-exempt backup on your list.
Lottery odds assume a STEM candidate.
Personalize to your clock →H-1B wage level
the lottery is wage-weighted — each level is one more entry
The bottom of this range ($136,500) is below the Level I prevailing wage of $152,797. An H-1B cannot be filed below the prevailing wage, so an offer at the floor of this band could not be sponsored as posted.
Based on the DOL prevailing wage for this occupation and worksite, a base salary of $187,075 would place this position at wage Level II. That figure is within the posted range, and I'd like to target it. This role classifies under "Software Developers" for prevailing-wage purposes.
DOL prevailing wage, 2026-27 wage year · Software Developers (15-1252) · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA. Wage level is derived by USCIS from the offered wage, occupation and worksite; the occupation shown is inferred from the job title.
Employer immigration record
from this employer's Department of Labor filings
Green-card filing pattern in this occupation
Green-card follow-through: 29%
Reported a layoff in this occupation
Files H-1B transfers
Sourced from Department of Labor LCA, PERM and prevailing-wage disclosure data. Employer matching is by name, so figures may be split across an employer's legal entities. Absence of a filing means none appears in our copy of the data, not that none exists.
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About the role
- The ideal candidate combines strong software engineering fundamentals with practical experience in ML systems and agent infrastructure, enabling deployment of high-impact AI solutions in production environments.
- Contribute to continuous integration, automated testing, and observability systems to ensure production-quality deployment of AI-enabled systems.
Responsibilities
- The ML / Software Engineer - ChipStack SuperAgent Team will be responsible for designing, implementing, and evaluating AI agents that enhance productivity across the semiconductor design lifecycle.
- This engineer will contribute to the development of robust agent infrastructure, evaluation systems, and production-grade AI capabilities integrated within Cadence's electronic design automation (EDA) ecosystem.
- Design and implement scalable infrastructure for AI agents operating within Cadence's ChipStack SuperAgent ecosystem.
- Develop data pipelines, retrieval systems, and context-engineering strategies to support consistent and grounded agent behavior.
Requirements
- BS with a minimum of 7 years of experience OR MS with a minimum of 5 years of experience OR PhD with a minimum of 1 year of experience.
- Experience designing evaluation frameworks for AI systems, including benchmarking, regression testing, and failure analysis.
- Skills of Interest Agent architecture: Experience with reason-act loops, planning/evaluation/self-correction patterns, tool/function calling, persistent memory systems, and structured outputs.
- experience with prompt engineering, context management, and alignment techniques.
- We build at lightning speed, but never compromise on the high standards required by the semiconductor industry.
Skills
- LLM engineering:
- Retrieval and data systems:
- Understanding of RAG pipelines, embeddings, indexing strategies, chunking methodologies, and grounding techniques.
- Infrastructure and observability:
- AI-assisted development workflows:
- Leveraging AI tools to enhance engineering productivity and code quality.
- Strong opinions, loosely held:
Compensation
- Sales positions generally offer a competitive On Target Earnings (OTE) incentive compensation structure.
- Please note that the salary range is a guideline and compensation may vary based on factors such as qualifications, skill level, competencies and work location.
Benefits
- bonus, equity, and benefits.
- Our benefits programs include: paid vacation and paid holidays, 401(k) plan with employer match, employee stock purchase plan, a variety of medical, dental and vision plan options, and more.
Company info
- We are a dynamic, fast-moving team of software developers, ML scientists, and research-minded engineers on a mission to change that.
- Operating with the agility of a startup but backed by industry-leading verification technologies, we are part of the System Verification Group (SVG).
- Our Culture Challenge the status quo: We are innovators who challenge industry norms and push forward our vision of how silicon should be built.
This listing is sourced directly from Cadence Design Systems Inc's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.