Senior/Principal Researcher: NPU and Agentic CPU Micro-architecture

About the role

Huawei Switzerland is looking for a Senior/Principal Researcher to shape its European Research Institute in Zurich, working with a multicultural team of leading researchers. The research covers next-generation Neural Processing Units (NPUs) and CPUs designed for the agentic AI era.

Key responsibilities

• Research NPU core micro-architecture: frontend mechanisms (branch prediction, BTB, instruction prefetching), register files, issue and wake-up logic, and scalar, vector and tensor functional units.
• Research NPU backends and memory systems, including TLBs, L1 caches, scratchpads and cache hierarchies that give high bandwidth and low latency.
• Design CPUs for agentic AI that handle tool calling, agent-logic scheduling and context management alongside accelerator-bound work.
• Develop architectural support for rapid context switching and high thread-level concurrency beyond conventional 2-way SMT.
• Prototype new architectural features and publish research papers at top conferences and journals such as ASPLOS, ISCA, MICRO and HPCA.
• Maintain collaborations with academic institutions and faculty, and mentor junior researchers and interns.

Required profile

• MSc or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or a related field.
• Strong background in computer architecture and micro-architecture.
• Research experience and/or strong knowledge in at least one of the listed areas.
• Proven track record of publishing papers in top-tier venues.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving and system-level thinking skills.

Required skills

• Knowledge of modern CPU architectures (Intel/ARM/AMD) or accelerators (Nvidia GPUs, Google TPUs).
• Experience with simulators such as Gem5, ChampSim, Sniper, ZSim or QFlex.
• Vector and matrix extensions (ARM SVE/SME, Intel SSE/AVX/AMX) and GPU programming models (CUDA, PTX/SASS).
• Micro-architecture characterisation using PMUs.
• Strong prototyping skills.

What we offer

• Collaboration with world-class scientists and engineers in an open, curiosity-driven environment.
• Access to state-of-the-art technology and tools.
• Opportunities for professional growth and development.
• Competitive salary and a high quality of life in Zurich.