Chief of Staff to VP, HPC Hardware Engineering

Job Description

Job Level: Director or Sr Director (non‑executive)
Reporting to: VP & Head of Hardware Engineering
Location: Austin, TX
Organization: Hardware Engineering (HWEN)
Scope: Global execution organization with sites in Japan, Vietnam, and India; horizontal functions including Back-End Engineering, Design Enablement, Design Verification, Functional Safety, Security, and related disciplines

Role Overview

The Chief of Staff to the VP of HPC Hardware Engineering (HWEN) is a senior execution‑effectiveness and information‑flow leader who enables the Head of HWEN to run a complex, global hardware organization with clarity, speed, and discipline.

The Chief of Staff’s primary objective is to ensure that accurate and relevant information is accessible at the appropriate level of detail and delivered precisely when required—across all sites, functions, execution metrics, innovation initiatives, and cost considerations. At present, a considerable amount of leadership time is dedicated to monitoring status updates, reconciling inconsistent data sources, and preparing materials for decision-making.

The Chief of Staff designs and runs the information, governance, and insight system for HWEN—streamlining inputs, standardizing outputs, maintaining an accurate pulse of the organization, and ensuring the VP receives decision‑ready synthesis, not raw noise. This is not an administrative or EA role; it is a senior leadership partner role focused on execution clarity and organizational health.

Key Responsibilities

Information Flow & Decision Readiness (Primary Focus)

• Design and implement a standardized information flow across all HWEN sites (Japan, Vietnam, India) and horizontal functions to eliminate fragmented reporting and multiple versions of truth
• Establish consistent definitions, templates, and health indicators for execution (milestones, readiness, risks, quality, dependencies, resourcing, and cost signals)
• Convert complex, bottom‑up execution data into clear, decision‑ready insights for the VP (what changed, why it matters, options, recommendation)
• Ensure leadership reviews focus on decisions and interventions—not status collection

Execution Governance & Operating Rhythm

• Own the HWEN execution cadence, including leadership reviews, tapeout readiness checkpoints, cross‑site syncs, and risk reviews
• Drive alignment on KPIs and execution metrics across functions and geographies
• Surface risks, tradeoffs, and cross‑functional dependencies early—especially those that threaten schedule, quality, or tapeout readiness
• Maintain a single, trusted roll‑up view of execution health across all programs

Cross‑Site and Cross‑Functional Integration

• Act as the integration point across sites and horizontal functions to improve coordination, handoffs, and decision speed
• Identify recurring friction points (unclear ownership, inconsistent readiness criteria, handoff breakdowns, reporting noise) and drive standard ways of working
• Ensure issues are escalated with clarity, context, and ownership—not as late surprises

Innovation, Improvements, and Initiatives (Within HWEN)

• Track and govern HWEN’s innovation and improvement initiatives (design methodology upgrades, automation, flow improvements, productivity and quality initiatives)
• Ensure initiative work is visible, prioritized, and measured
• Help leadership make deliberate tradeoffs between tapeout‑critical execution and longer‑term improvement work

Executive Communication & Leadership Support

• Prepare the VP of HWEN for engagements with the SVP and broader leadership by providing a crisp execution narrative, top risks, mitigations, and decisions needed
• Synthesize technical and operational inputs into executive‑ready materials (dashboards, one‑pagers, review decks)
• Ensure consistent messaging and clarity across the HWEN leadership team

Organizational Pulse, Judgment, and Discretion

• Maintain a continuous pulse on organizational health, including morale, capacity strain, friction points, and execution stress
• Bring early signals to the VP with context and options—before issues become systemic
• Handle sensitive information wit