About Actogram
Actogram is a technology startup developing algorithms that transform wearable sensor data into meaningful insights into biological rhythms, sleep, and long-term health.
One of our core technology directions is designed for integration into traditional quartz watches, enabling continuous biological rhythm tracking while maintaining multi-year operation from a coin-cell battery.
We are looking for a Digital ASIC / RTL Engineer to become the technical owner of the algorithm-to-silicon process and lead the development of an ultra-low-power ASIC implementation of the Actogram algorithm.
The main objective is to produce a silicon-proven Actogram IP Core through an MPW program and prepare a reusable semiconductor IP package for licensing and integration into third-party watch ASICs and SoCs.
Responsibilities
- Translate the existing Actogram algorithm into a synthesizable ultra-low-power digital architecture
- Define the ASIC architecture and implement RTL
- Perform functional verification against the reference algorithm
- Perform synthesis and preliminary Power, Performance and Area (PPA) assessment
- Define clocking, power management, memory and sensor/Wake-on-Motion interfaces
- Prepare the design for physical implementation and MPW tape-out
- Coordinate with external ASIC design, foundry/MPW, packaging and testing partners where required
- Lead bring-up and validation of the fabricated silicon.
- Measure and document actual power consumption and functional performance
- Design the MPW prototype for post-silicon functional and power characterization, including dedicated test modes, controllable clocking, observable internal states and isolated power measurement capability
- Prepare the resulting architecture, RTL, verification environment and implementation documentation as a reusable licensable semiconductor IP package suitable for integration into third-party watch ASICs and SoCs
Requirements
- 5+ years of experience in digital ASIC/SoC design, with experience in digital ASIC architecture, not only FPGA development
- Strong proficiency in SystemVerilog, Verilog and/or VHDL
- Experience translating algorithms from C/C++, pseudocode or mathematical specifications into hardware architecture and RTL
- Ability to design datapath and control logic/FSM, registers, counters, timers, accumulators, comparators and simple memory architectures
- Experience implementing algorithms using fixed-point, integer and Boolean logic without an FPU
- Hands-on experience with ultra-low-power digital design, including clock gating, power gating, duty cycling, event-driven architecture, always-on domains and sleep/wake logic
- Experience designing extremely low-power always-on digital logic intended to operate continuously in coin-cell-powered devices
- Understanding of power budgeting at the μW/μA level and the ability to identify which architectural blocks will dominate power consumption
- Experience with always-on sensor processing, preferably accelerometer, motion or Wake-on-Motion
- Experience with RTL simulation, verification and synthesis, for example Questa/ModelSim, Verilator, Synopsys, Cadence or Siemens flows
- Ability to perform preliminary Power, Performance and Area (PPA) analysis
- Understanding of the complete ASIC flow: RTL → synthesis → STA → place & route → sign-off → tape-out, even if physical design is performed by another specialist
- Ability to act as the technical owner of the complete algorithm-to-silicon process, including coordination with external design and manufacturing partners
- English sufficient for independent technical communication with international partners
Nice to have
- Knowledge of low-power standards such as UPF/CPF
Conditions
- We plan to start with a part-time role, with a transition to full-time within 2–3 months
- Compensation for full-time employment: from $4000 per month
Final compensation is discussed individually depending on experience and level of technical ownership.
