Member of Technical Staff - Formal Methods at Architect

Department: Machine Learning

Setup: On-site
Location: Palo Alto, California
Type: Full-time
Level: staff+
Posted: May 13, 2026

Description

Architect Labs is hiring a Member of Technical Staff - Formal Methods to build and operate the formal foundations of its custom-chip design flow. The role owns the formal specification language, intermediate representation, proof-obligation generation, SMT and model-checker integration, soundness arguments, and empirical coverage evidence. It is a hands-on 0→1 research-to-production role requiring a PhD in a relevant field, deep formal-methods expertise, experience with proof tools, and strong software-engineering skills. The position offers competitive salary, equity, autonomy, and a foundational role at the intersection of formal methods, AI, and silicon.

Required Skills

Temporal logic
Model checking
SMT verification
Refinement specification
Proof assistants
TLA+
Lean
Coq
Software engineering
Compiler infrastructure
SMT solvers

Additional Information

Minimum Education: PhD in Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, or a closely related field
Required Previous Experiences: Dissertation or equivalent work in formal methods applied to hardware or systems
Experience applying formal methods to a shipped real artifact
Experience with formal frameworks or proof tools such as TLA+, Lean, or Coq
Experience building formal toolchains and compiler-style infrastructure
Preferred Qualifications: BS/MS with a strong industrial formal verification track record
Industrial formal verification experience at leading silicon, automated reasoning, or formal-methods firms
Experience designing HLS tools
Background in compiler, IR, or DSL implementation
Publications at top formal methods, programming languages, or EDA venues
Familiarity with modern AI/ML systems and learned components
Early technical hire experience at a deeptech or formal-methods startup