Semiconductor & Chip Design Engineer (Canada)

Opportunity Overview

Handshake is looking for experienced Semiconductor and Chip Design Engineers to support AI research through flexible, part-time contract work. This is not a traditional engineering role—you’ll draw on your hands-on industry experience in chip design, EDA, VLSI, semiconductor process engineering, or verification to evaluate AI-generated content and provide feedback that helps AI reason like a practicing chip engineer.

This is an ongoing, project-based opportunity that you can take on alongside your current role.

What You’ll Do

• Create expert-level semiconductor and chip engineering problems and scenarios grounded in real design, verification, implementation, fabrication, and tape-out workflows
• Review AI-generated responses for technical accuracy, practical feasibility, and alignment with industry standards and engineering practice
• Evaluate designs, methodologies, assumptions, and recommendations involving digital and analog IC design, RTL, verification, physical design, EDA flows, semiconductor processes, and related topics
• Assess AI-generated technical work across areas such as synthesis, simulation, timing analysis, physical implementation, design-rule checking, layout, verification, and tape-out
• Provide clear, structured written feedback to help improve AI model performance
• Complete tasks at your own pace, with no set schedule or minimum-hour requirement

Project Details

• Work remotely and asynchronously from wherever you are.
• Set your own schedule with no minimum time requirement.
• Project placement depends on current availability. If this opportunity is full, additional projects will become available soon.

Qualifications

Ideal candidates meet all three of the following:

• Industry experience — 2+ years of hands-on chip design, semiconductor, or related engineering experience in industry
• Degree — MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a closely related field. A BS in Electrical or Computer Engineering also qualifies when paired with strong industry experience
• Chip and semiconductor expertise — demonstrated depth in one or more of the following areas:

  • Digital or analog IC design

  • VLSI and RTL design
  • Functional or formal verification
  • Physical design, place and route, and timing closure
  • EDA tools and semiconductor design flows
  • Semiconductor fabrication and process engineering
  • Design-for-test (DFT), synthesis, or implementation
  • Layout, design-rule checking, and tape-out
  • ASIC, SoC, FPGA, or related chip development

Additional Qualifications

These are not required but will strengthen your application:

• Proficiency with industry-standard EDA and chip-design tools such as Cadence Virtuoso, Innovus, Synopsys Design Compiler, PrimeTime, VCS, Mentor/Siemens Calibre, ModelSim/Questa, Vivado, Quartus, or comparable tools
• Experience with Verilog, SystemVerilog, VHDL, SPICE, or other hardware-description and circuit-simulation languages
• Experience with synthesis, static timing analysis, place and route, physical verification, DRC/LVS, parasitic extraction, or other production semiconductor workflows
• Experience with formal verification, UVM, simulation, coverage analysis, or other verification methodologies
• Experience with semiconductor process technologies, foundry design rules, PDKs, yield analysis, or process integration
• Experience at a semiconductor manufacturer, chip-design company, EDA company, engineering consultancy, or recognized employer such as Intel, NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Apple, Arm, Synopsys, Cadence, or Siemens EDA

Required for All Applicants

• Based in Canada
• Strong written communication and attention to detail
• Ability to explain complex semiconductor and chip-design concepts clearly
• Ability to work independently in a remote, asynchronous environment