AI Engineer

Job Details:

Job Description

AI Engineer – Agentic AI Systems Why This Role Matters AI is shifting from models to autonomous systems. At Altera, we are building agentic AI platforms tightly coupled with FPGA acceleration, enabling intelligent systems that can reason, act, and scale in real-world environments.

This role is designed for high-potential engineers early in their careers who want to: work on cutting-edge AI (LLMs + agents + RAG) gain exposure to hardware-software co-design and grow quickly into technical leaders in AI systems What You’ll Work On Build Real Agentic AI Systems Develop LLM-powered agents that use tools, APIs, and data to complete complex tasks Implement RAG pipelines for large-scale knowledge integration Ship end-to-end systems from data ingestion → reasoning → action Go Beyond “Model Usage” Design multi-step reasoning workflows, not just prompt calls Evaluate and improve model behavior (accuracy, latency, cost) Work with both open-source and frontier models AI Meets Hardware (Differentiator) Collaborate with FPGA/ASIC teams on hardware-aware AI design Learn how AI systems are optimized across CPU / GPU / FPGA Explore efficient inference and system-level performance tradeoffs Build Platforms, Not Just Features Develop reusable components for: memory and context management tool integration knowledge retrieval Contribute to internal AI platforms used across teams The pay range below is for Bay Area California only.

Actual salary may vary based on a number of factors including job location, job-related knowledge, skills, experiences, trainings, etc. We also offer incentive opportunities that reward employees based on individual and company performance. $133.2K - $192.8K USD We use artificial intelligence to screen, assess, or select applicants for the position.

Applicants must be eligible for any required U.S. export authorizations.

What We’re Looking For

• Background Master’s (or exceptional Bachelor’s) in CS, EE, or related field 3+ years experience (internships, research, or industry) Technical Strength Strong coding skills in Python (C++ is a plus) Hands-on experience building: AI/ML projects, OR backend / distributed systems Solid fundamentals in: data structures system design basics Signal of Excellence (What Sets You Apart) You’ve built something non-trivial: AI project, open-source contribution, or research prototype You learn new frameworks quickly and ship working systems You’re curious about how systems work end-to-end, not just models Bonus Points Experience with: LangChain, LlamaIndex, or similar vector databases (FAISS, Milvus, etc.)
• Exposure to: RAG, prompt engineering, or agent workflows hardware acceleration or performance optimization What You’ll Get Fast Growth Work directly with senior architects and domain experts Clear path toward Senior Engineer → Architect roles High Learning Density Exposure to both: modern AI systems (LLMs, agents) hardware acceleration (FPGA/ASIC) Real Ownership Build production systems—not demos Your work will be used in real engineering workflows Unique Positioning Few roles combine: Agentic AI systems EDA / semiconductor domain hardware-aware AI optimization Job Type: Regular Shift: Shift 1 (United States of America) Primary Location: San Jose, California, United States Additional Locations: Posting Statement: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, religious creed, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, military and veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by local law, regulation, or ordinance.
• About Altera Altera: Accelerating Innovators Altera provides leadership programmable solutions that are easy-to-use and deploy in applications from cloud to edge, offering limitless AI possibilities.
• Our end-to-end broad portfolio of products including FPGAs, CPLDs, Intellectual Property, development tools, System on Modules, SmartNICs and IPUs provide the flexibility to accelerate innovation.
• Altera is helping to shape the future through pioneering innovation that unlocks extraordinary possibilities for everyone on the planet.
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