Job Description

The Computing System Lab at the Research Center located in Zurich is a leading hub for research and development in advanced computing systems, with a strong focus on chip architecture, computing cluster, system & interconnect, memory subsystem, artificial intelligence, and framework & software technologies. With a team of over 70 researchers, including 50+ PhD holders, the lab operates at the cutting edge of computational innovation and plays a key role in shaping the future of technology.

Under experienced leadership guidance, the lab has significantly expanded its research scope and impact, earning a reputation for excellence and fostering a collaborative, dynamic environment that nurtures both innovation and talent.

In addition to its impressive research output, the Computing System Lab fosters collaboration with leading industry partners and academic institutions around the world. The lab has received over CHF 150 million in funding in the past five years, supporting its groundbreaking work and enabling large-scale projects. Through its interdisciplinary approach, the lab blends expertise from software and hardware codesign, and AI technologies to develop real-world, impactful solutions that continues to drive the technology leadership for various Huawei products.

The lab’s commitment to innovation is also reflected in its high publication rate, with over 100 peer-reviewed papers published annually in top-tier conferences and journals. The Computing System Lab continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in computing, contributing to the advancement of next-generation AI system, software, and high-performance memory architectures.

By focusing on these critical areas, our Computing System Lab is not only advancing the science of computing but also preparing the technologies of tomorrow to meet the global demands of the digital world

For our Computing Systems Lab in Zurich, we are looking for a high caliber:

Chief Scientist (m/f/d)

We are seeking a chief scientist with in-depth expertise and strong capabilities to spearhead our initiatives in innovation of advanced techniques, path-finding researches and technique insight & planning to ensure the smooth operation and success of the projects in our lab.

This role involves leading a team of talented researchers from diverse background in exploring next-generation computing architectures, designing full-stack of computing framework, and developing critical advanced techniques, with a particular focus on efficiency, scalability, resilience, cost-effectiveness of computing architecture for emerging AI workload.

The ideal candidate will bring a long-established academic influence, scientific and technical proficiency, communication and collaboration abilities and a strong leadership and driving force that keep the team at the cutting-edge of research.

Responsibilities

• Lead the team to identify the evolution path of next-generation computing architecture in terms of AI accelerator and general-purpose processor. Continuously track the latest technology trends globally. Anticipate new trends, breakthroughs, and disruptions, and use this insight to lead in architecture exploration, design and development. Define key problems in next-generation architecture evolution. Prioritize based on their impact on future computing system competitiveness and performance. Set high-standard research goals, and supervise the team to achieve front-tier solutions.
• Guide the team to build up an outstanding capabilities of architecture design and performance analysis. This involves rapid workload modeling and computational mapping running on specific hardware architectures, powerful toolkit facilitating decision-making on design alternatives in the design space and additional supporting technologies such as programming models, compilation frameworks, heuristic algorithms, etc. Gradually enhance the professional and impact in the field of chip & arch design which particularly involves core techniques, for example of design space exploration, performance simulation, wafer-scale, interconnection, 3D package, thermal dissipation, reliability and redundancy design etc.
• Motivate the team to develop competitive solutions. Keep researchers concentrating on exploring technical paths that are different from the existing solutions developed by HQ team or the popular works from industry & academia and are more advantageous. Incorporate research, best practices, and market needs to ensure the own architectures outperform in efficiency, scalability, and adaptability. Ensure the technical feasibility, scalability and cost-effectiveness of computing architectures for deployment in various significant scenarios, especially for AI workload.
• Serve as the spokesperson for the team under his/her leadership, articulating technical viewpoints clearly and authoritatively at internal/external ideas exchange, technical meeting, industry conferences and academic seminars. Possess excellent communication and presentation skills to convincingly convey the superiority of his/her proposed technologies, effectively influencing peers, collaborators, and stakeholders to adopt these innovative technical approaches. Expected to have a positive impact on architecture design plans of HQ by actively sharing research insights, demonstrating the practical value of work, and collaborating closely with HQ’s R&D teams on the next-generation arch exploration and design.
• Develop partnerships with academic institutions, universities and industry partners to enhance knowledge and finding exchange and research collaboration. Build extensive and in-depth strategic partnerships with local and global academic resources. Represent the own department and even the entire business domain at company level in the scientific community. Showcase our leadership in computing architecture domain and establish a wide-ranging academic reputation.
• Ensure that the team consistently produces a wealth of high-quality research findings and achievements. Guide the team to conduct in-depth studies and drive to generate impactful results such as significant technological breakthroughs, influential publications and highly valuable patents etc. by leveraging innovative research methods and closely tracking technology trends.

Requirements

• PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field with a strong interest, well-tracked achievements and proven successful experience in advanced computing architecture and system especially for AI scenarios.
• Senior technical expert, professor and scientist from either industry or academia with over 15 years of experience in research and development within the field of computing architecture, including substantial experience in a leadership role.
• Extensive experience with AI technologies, particularly in the areas of LLM, foundation model, multimodal, spatial intelligence and other wider spectrum of computing application like HPC, graphics & rendering, cryptographic, quantum computing and so on.
• Strong publication record in peer-reviewed journals, conferences (h-index is no less than 30), and/or highly valuable patents in relevant fields.
• Exceptional leadership and organization skills and the ability to inspire and direct a high-performing team.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills to interact effectively with stakeholders at all levels.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience with exploration and design of advanced uArch, SoC, hardware platform and memory etc.
• Proficiency in workload analysis & mapping and software-hardware codesign.
• Knowledge of important topics of chip design and manufacture involving process, package etc.