[VR-Zone] AMD Begins the Hunt for Talent

[RavenSEAL]

AMD starts hiring world class SoC engineers
Reported by Theo Valich on Friday, December 2 2011 8:42 am

After all the doom and gloom of recent cleanup operation that culled 12% of its workforce, AMD has started to open job positions for engineers, especially ones in the field of SoC design (System-on-a-Chip).

In order to go forward, AMD executives know that Wall Street investors won't be impressed with the 1400 layoffs - if the market success of Apple, Nokia, Intel, BMW, Audi, Airbus (and the list goes on) show anything is that engineering excellence is what is required for success.


AMD's Rory P. Read will announce his Project WIN strategy at Financial Analyst Day in February 2012, but until then, some serious head hunting is taking place. Bear in mind that AMD did not just lay people off, the company had internal reorganization and it was good to hear that several former "directors of engineering" (GPU, CPU, Memory architects) were promoted to VP, CVP and C-level executives.

​

Thus, it comes as no surprise that AMD's LinkedIn page is now filled with job posts and there is active recruiting taking place behind the scenes. Bear in mind that some of these ads are searching not just for one job position, rather several talented engineers at the same time (depending on interview results). Engineers are even looked for on Twitter.

So, who is AMD looking for? The positions are mostly located in Austin (TX), Sunnyvale (CA), Boxborough (MA) and Fort Collins (CO) and we have to say that job descriptions are intriguing. This is just a small sample of jobs available:

SOC Integration Engineer, Austin TX - "Own floor planning (estimates & actual), C4 planning, packaging requirements, top level interconnects, implement overlays, full chip assembly along with associated physical verification of assembled chip for next generation AMD Server and Fusion microprocessors."

SOC Design Verification Engineer, Austin TX "This position is for an experienced verification engineer in AMD's SoC verification group working on next generation high performance x86 client and server microprocessors. The location is the Lone Star Design Center in southwest Austin."

System Software Development Engineer, Austin TX - "System Optimization Engineering team is seeking an experienced system-software developer to join AMD's modeling team for software-based simulation of AMD's future server, notebook, tablet and desktop platforms."

Learning and Development Manager, Austin TX - "The L&D Manager (Finance Transformation) position will support us in the transformation of our global Finance team. Engaging our employees globally, you will support the transformation of the Finance organization through the project management, facilitation, and coaching of the team via process and culture change specifically through training development, delivery, and sustainment."
The list goes on, and if you want to check it out, hit this link. As far as AMD goes, we can only hope that the new faces in AMD will make their products even more competitive on the market.



Read more: http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-starts-hiring-world-class-soc-engineers/14113.html#ixzz1fLHA09gZ

Anyone looking for a job?

 

[zebrax2]

I just hope that AMD could pick up a few gems with this.

 

[exar333]

Good news. Hopefully they get some solid talent!

 

[antisocialmunky]

Wow cool, it'll take a few years for the talent to actually get anything produced though 😛

 

[pm]

A recruiter cold-called me early last week about an "opportunity for a VLSI design engineer in Austin" and I was wondering if it could be AMD. My name and employer are listed in the IEEE database, so I figured that's how they found me, but I'm also in LinkedIn. The recruiter didn't offer the name of the company, and I didn't ask - because they usually won't disclose that anyway. But AMD did seem like a likely choice.

At the time I didn't think much about it - although I haven't had a recruiter call me before that in over a year so I did think "well, this is one sign the economy is doing something".

 

[aigomorla]

IDC or Ruby!! APPLY!!!

maybe u can fix all the fail in the arch! 😛

 

[Idontcare]

Anyone looking for a job?

LOL, make that "anyone looking for a job with little or no job security because we like to layoff staff every other business quarter...oh and we also offer the fringe benefit of frequent salary freezes and no bonuses unless your last name is Ruiz"...

I can't imagine there are too many unemployed world-class VLSI design engineers out there right now, and the one's that are employed aren't about to swap whatever current job security they have to go over to AMD where its kinda understand there isn't much to had.

But I wish them all the best. The job they (AMD's HR dept) have is a daunting one. I imagine they'll just end up filling the slots with new hires out of college, or design engineers who have been let go (meaning their rankings weren't all that stellar at their old employer to begin with).

IDC or Ruby!! APPLY!!!

maybe u can fix all the fail in the arch! 😛

Lol, maybe Ruby but not me. What I don't know about circuit design could fill an internet or two. I'm a process tech guy, which coincidentally much like the case with pm I was hit up by a recruiter looking to fill GloFo jobs in Malta.

I would be tempted to go but only if it were part of a plan on GloFo's part to divorce themselves from the IBM alliance and start doing R&D internally again. But I really don't know if GloFo is long for this world. They've failed to gain momentum and traction amongst the foundry customers, TSMC is literally cleaning up 28nm contracts.

Just as AMD encountered, you can't afford to stay leading-edge in the foundry space if you only have 20% of the leading edge marketshare. Your revenue will fail to fuel the necessary R&D expense of staying on that leading edge.

 

[podspi]

Just as AMD encountered, you can't afford to stay leading-edge in the foundry space if you only have 20% of the leading edge marketshare. Your revenue will fail to fuel the necessary R&D expense of staying on that leading edge.

Which is why I'm surprised AMD is rumored to be moving 28nm product to TSMC. If GF goes under, where will AMD build their high-end products?

Or perhaps they don't plan on having many high-end products in 5 ~ 10 years?
Yikes.

 

[Idontcare]

Which is why I'm surprised AMD is rumored to be moving 28nm product to TSMC. If GF goes under, where will AMD build their high-end products?

Or perhaps they don't plan on having many high-end products in 5 ~ 10 years?
Yikes.

The same place they chose to build their high-end GPU products, as well as Brazos in the first place. The same place that SUN/Oracle has chosen to build their high-end CPU's to compete with Intel and IBM.

TSMC is in the enviable position of having a 28nm gate-last process that is entering production, and they have the enviable position of snagging northwards of 80% of the 28nm market.

That builds confidence that TSMC's 20nm R&D (and smaller) is more likely to be well resourced, which convinces more customers to stick with TSMC (or in AMD's case, switch to them). It becomes a self-fulfilling cycle.

The question for TSMC's customers who themselves are competing with Intel (that would be AMD and Oracle) is "can TSMC generate enough revenue to justify pursuing an R&D timeline that is competitive with Intel?".

This was the very same idea that led to the creation of the IBM fab-club...but that has not really taken off in terms of the marketshare and revenue volumes that are necessary for it to be self-sustaining. Which is why TSMC never joined them.

The only foundry that seems close to giving TSMC some competition would be Samsung. And samsung has the unenviable position of being so large that their left-hand doesn't talk to their right-hand. So they end up doing stuff that shoots themselves in the foot like suing their own customers and so on because they are also in competition with the very customers they want to be a foundry for.

And so Samsung is self-limiting, to TSMC's benefit. And GloFo seems to have issues of the failure-to-execute kind. 🙁

 

[Vesku]

Yeah, outsourcing your production level R&D especially to a company that is known for not letting practical concerns interfere *cough*IBM*cough* does not compute. Was this another Ruiz decision?

If it was joint future tech R&D then I could understand, getting a leg up with memristors could be BIG money.

 

[cotak13]

I am with IDC on this hiring thing.

They would have to pay through the nose, offer some sort of job guarantees to attract the good talent. Even then I don't know if many people would tie their career to a ship that's low in the water for a while now. New grads who can't get a job else where maybe but you need experienced guys. I guess people who are looking to retire soon might be interested in hopes they'll get a big fat retirement bonus if the axe comes again.

On thing though I think a certain "captain ARM" here on the boards is going to be a bit disappointed in the news. Looks like they repeat "x86" quite a few times but nothing about ARM. Which isn't' a definite no to ARM but they do say x86 with server and fusion. This suggests they are going to go it with x86.

The mixing of SOC with server and fusion in job description (and careful reading of them) makes me wonder if Read even has a clue what he wants to do. He fires 10% then come around and wants to hire a bunch of people to do SOC server chips? Does he want to make server blades? I don't even know if server blades are all that hot in the market place right now. Ah well like any other business bet you can come off either as a hero or a zero but only time will tell. The poor bastards who loses their jobs if such a bet going sour thought, I feel for them.

Update: WTF? http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJo...1_I_us_*1_*1_1_R_true_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2

Looks like they are going to slowly kill of what used to be ATI? If they are hiring GPU/Video people in the USA that seems the logical conclusion?

 

[wlee15]

Looks like they are going to slowly kill of what used to be ATI? If they are hiring GPU/Video people in the USA that seems the logical conclusion?

What makes you think that the GPU design teams are located in Canada?

 

[Blitzvogel]

I am with IDC on this hiring thing.

They would have to pay through the nose, offer some sort of job guarantees to attract the good talent. Even then I don't know if many people would tie their career to a ship that's low in the water for a while now. New grads who can't get a job else where maybe but you need experienced guys. I guess people who are looking to retire soon might be interested in hopes they'll get a big fat retirement bonus if the axe comes again.

On thing though I think a certain "captain ARM" here on the boards is going to be a bit disappointed in the news. Looks like they repeat "x86" quite a few times but nothing about ARM. Which isn't' a definite no to ARM but they do say x86 with server and fusion. This suggests they are going to go it with x86.

The mixing of SOC with server and fusion in job description (and careful reading of them) makes me wonder if Read even has a clue what he wants to do. He fires 10% then come around and wants to hire a bunch of people to do SOC server chips? Does he want to make server blades? I don't even know if server blades are all that hot in the market place right now. Ah well like any other business bet you can come off either as a hero or a zero but only time will tell. The poor bastards who loses their jobs if such a bet going sour thought, I feel for them.

Update: WTF? http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJo...1_I_us_*1_*1_1_R_true_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2

Looks like they are going to slowly kill of what used to be ATI? If they are hiring GPU/Video people in the USA that seems the logical conclusion?

What about x86 SoCs for low power devices like phones and tablets?

 

[cbn]

What about x86 SoCs for low power devices like phones and tablets?

With Nvidia barely making money with Tegra it just makes you wonder....

Assistance from MS would go a long way towards helping x86 though......to enable a smooth transition from touch screen to large screen/keyboard docked configuration.

Maybe we will see this happen? I forgot the Intel CEO mentioned something like that in the following articke--> http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57334193/intel-thrills-and-chills-thinking-about-windows-8/

And they have a new experience, which they call Metro, that’s the interface up there. But for Intel-based machines, there is also one button that basically takes you back to your classic Windows experience and that’s a software button essentially.

So you’re just running one manifestation of the operating system with two different GUIs, if you will, it’s not running on virtual machines, it’s one manifestation. So this gives us, x86, in particular, I think a unique advantage as Windows 8 comes to market, because we can take advantage of all the legacy that was ever written,

 

[CTho9305]

A recruiter cold-called me early last week about an "opportunity for a VLSI design engineer in Austin" and I was wondering if it could be AMD. My name and employer are listed in the IEEE database, so I figured that's how they found me, but I'm also in LinkedIn. The recruiter didn't offer the name of the company, and I didn't ask - because they usually won't disclose that anyway. But AMD did seem like a likely choice.

At the time I didn't think much about it - although I haven't had a recruiter call me before that in over a year so I did think "well, this is one sign the economy is doing something".

Austin is a nice place 😉. But I believe Samsung, Qualcomm, and Oracle are also hiring here.

 

[pm]

Austin is a nice place 😉. But I believe Samsung, Qualcomm, and Oracle are also hiring here.

Definitely, Austin is a nice place. It would be on my short list of places that I'd like to live in in the US, but my wife and I and the kids aren't moving anywhere unless I'm forced to.

And, yeah, that's a good point. Qualcomm, or maybe Oracle. Hard to know. I told the recruiter "no", but I took her number just in case.