Founding Chief Architect (High-Speed SerDes)

About the Role

We are establishing Swapetech’s UK IC design centre and are looking for a Founding Chief SerDes Architect to lead our in-house SerDes R&D capability.

This is a senior technical leadership role for someone who wants to define architecture, build a high-calibre design team, and take ownership of next-generation high-speed interface technology from concept to silicon.

Responsibilities

• Define the long-term architecture and technology roadmap for next-generation high-speed SerDes and PHY solutions.
• Lead the architecture, design direction and technical strategy for advanced mixed-signal interface technologies.
• Drive architectural trade-offs across bandwidth, power, latency, signal integrity, jitter, area, reliability and manufacturability.
• Provide technical leadership throughout the complete silicon development lifecycle, from architectural definition through tape-out, silicon bring-up and production validation.
• Collaborate closely with digital design, verification, physical design, packaging, system architecture and product engineering teams.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and define future product directions aligned with market requirements.
• Represent SwapeTech in technical engagements with customers, industry partners and academic institutions where appropriate.
• Foster a culture of engineering excellence, innovation and technical leadership.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in high-speed SerDes or PHY architecture for advanced semiconductor products.
• Strong expertise in mixed-signal and analog IC design.
• Deep understanding of CDR, PLL, equalisation, clocking architecture, jitter analysis and signal integrity.
• Experience with NRZ and PAM4 signalling.
• Experience with advanced CMOS process technologies.
• Demonstrated experience delivering multiple generations of silicon from architectural definition through tape-out and production validation.
• Proven technical leadership within multidisciplinary semiconductor engineering organisations.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

Location:

U.K.-based, with flexibility depending on experience.