Deputy Director - Product Platforms

About GlobalFoundries:

GlobalFoundries is a leading full-service semiconductor foundry providing a unique combination of design, development, and fabrication services to some of the world’s most inspired technology companies. With a global manufacturing footprint spanning three continents, GlobalFoundries makes possible the technologies and systems that transform industries and give customers the power to shape their markets. For more information, visit www.gf.com.

Summary of Role:

The Deputy Director, Product Platforms will be the entrepreneurial product leader for a differentiated compute-platform portfolio. The role combines product vision, market insight, technical depth, customer leadership, ecosystem development, and commercial accountability. The successful candidate will turn reusable processor, memory, interconnect, security, safety, AI acceleration, I/O, software, and development-tool assets into compelling customizable platform families and derivative products that customers can adopt and scale.

This is not a product-planning-only role. The leader will engage deeply across hardware and software, work directly with customers and partners, drive disciplined product execution, and remain accountable for successful launches, design wins, adoption, and sustained revenue growth.

Essential responsibilities:

·   Define and own the multi-year platform vision, product strategy, roadmap, business plan, and investment priorities for the 12nm compute portfolio.

·   Maintain an architecture and IP-reuse strategy that is anchored in 12nm but can extend to an adjacent process node when supported by market demand, customer requirements, performance / power / cost needs, supply strategy, or portfolio economics.

·   Translate market trends and customer use cases into platform requirements spanning CPU architecture, memory hierarchy, coherent interconnect / NoC, accelerators, high-speed I/O, security, functional safety, package, power, software, tools, and reference systems.

·   Create a coherent platform family and derivative strategy rather than isolated one-off products; define where configuration, customer IP integration, chiplets, companion devices, or custom derivatives create differentiated value.

·   Own product requirements, target specifications, competitive positioning, pricing strategy, business cases, lifecycle plans, and clear go / no-go recommendations.

·   Lead cross-functional platform execution with architecture, silicon design, verification, physical design, DFT, package, test, validation, software, applications, operations, quality, finance, sales, and marketing.

·   Drive the full launch process from concept and business approval through platform definition, development, pre-silicon enablement, sampling, production release, market launch, customer ramp, and post-launch optimization.

·   Build the whole-product plan, including virtual platforms, FPGA prototypes, evaluation systems, SDKs, Linux / RTOS enablement, drivers, toolchains, reference designs, documentation, training, and field collateral.

·   Develop and manage an ecosystem of processor / IP providers, EDA partners, OS and middleware vendors, toolchain and debug partners, design services firms, board partners, distributors, and application-domain partners.

·   Establish executive-level relationships with strategic customers and partners; lead discovery, roadmap alignment, product definition, commercial framing, design-win strategy, and escalation resolution.

·   Partner with sales and field teams to build the opportunity pipeline, segment target accounts, improve customer identification and win rate, and convert early engagements into design wins and production revenue.

·   Own platform KPIs, including roadmap execution, launch readiness, design wins, qualified pipeline, ecosystem readiness, customer adoption, gross margin, forecast accuracy, revenue growth, and return on investment.

·   Continuously assess competitive offerings, technology shifts, market inflections, and build / buy / partner choices; adjust the roadmap with speed and discipline.

·   Communicate a clear, credible platform narrative to executives, customers, partners, field teams, and engineering organizations, balancing vision with evidence and execution realism.

·   Commercial judgment: ability to balance NRE and customer specific developments with a platform reuse approach, derivative economics, margin, schedule, customer specificity, and long-term portfolio leverage. 

Other Responsibilities:

• Perform all activities in a safe and responsible manner and support all Environmental, Health, Safety & Security requirements and programs.

Required Qualifications:

·   Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, or a closely related technical field; advanced technical or business degree is a plus.

·   8+ years of semiconductor, embedded-computing, processor, SoC, platform, or closely related product experience, including 5+ years in product management, platform leadership, product marketing, applications, systems, or a comparable customer-facing technical leadership role.

·   Strong background in 32-bit or 64-bit compute products, with 64-bit MPU, application-processor, edge-compute, infrastructure, or Linux-class product experience strongly preferred.

·   Demonstrated understanding of SoC hardware and software, including prior hands-on or leadership involvement in both domains. Experience may include silicon architecture, systems, applications, firmware, BSP / SDK, operating systems, drivers, validation, or product engineering.

·   Proven record of successful semiconductor or embedded-platform launches, from market definition and requirements through customer adoption and production ramp.

·   Demonstrated product revenue growth, design-win creation, portfolio expansion, or turnaround results supported by concrete business metrics.

·   Experience creating or scaling a software, tools, IP, and partner ecosystem around a compute product or platform.

·   Strong customer and partner relationships, with the credibility to engage engineering leaders, product executives, architects, procurement, and business decision makers.

·   Ability to build rigorous market models, product P&Ls, pricing and margin frameworks, investment cases, forecast ranges, and measurable launch plans.

·   Excellent leadership and influence skills across matrixed organizations; able to align strong technical and commercial stakeholders without relying solely on direct authority.

·   Clear executive communication, strong judgment under uncertainty, high ownership, and willingness to move between strategy, detail, and customer execution.

Preferred Qualification:

·   Experience with RISC-V, Arm, MIPS, or comparable processor architectures; multicore SoCs; MMUs and virtualization; coherent fabrics; cache / DDR subsystems; PCIe, Ethernet, SerDes, or other high-speed interfaces.

·   Experience with Linux-class products and software enablement, including boot flow, firmware, drivers, SDKs, virtual platforms, FPGA prototyping, evaluation boards, and developer tooling.

·   Exposure to AI / ML acceleration, vector processing, edge inference, networking offload, functional safety, cybersecurity, HSM / root of trust, or long-lifecycle industrial and automotive products.

·   Experience managing process-node, foundry, package, test, yield, cost, supply, and lifecycle tradeoffs for semiconductor products.

·   Experience with configurable platforms, product derivatives, custom silicon, customer IP integration, or platform reuse across multiple end markets.

·   Established network across customers and ecosystem partners in edge compute, industrial, robotics, machine vision, infrastructure or automotive.

·   Experience leading geographically distributed teams and operating across engineering, field, partner, and executive communities.

Leadership Profile

Visionary and market-back

Connects technology inflections and customer pain points to a differentiated, investable platform roadmap.

Self-motivated owner

Creates momentum, closes gaps, and drives decisions without waiting for a fully defined playbook.

Technical product leader

Can challenge architects and software leaders while translating tradeoffs into customer and business outcomes.

Commercially accountable

Treats launch, adoption, margin, and revenue as core product responsibilities, not downstream sales tasks.

Ecosystem builder

Understands that processors win through software, tools, partners, reference systems, and developer confidence.

Customer credible

Builds trust through preparation, transparency, technical command, and reliable follow-through.

Platform thinker

Optimizes for reuse and scalable derivatives while recognizing when a strategic customer-specific investment is justified.

Decisive and adaptable

Makes evidence-based decisions with incomplete information, explicitly manages risk, and adjusts quickly as facts change.

Success Measures

·   Clear, approved platform strategy and roadmap with explicit market, customer, product, software, ecosystem, financial, and process-node choices.

·   Launch milestones achieved with measurable readiness across silicon, software, tools, boards, documentation, field enablement, supply, and quality.

·   Priority customer opportunities converted into architecture engagements, design wins, and credible production-revenue paths.

·   Platform and derivative portfolio demonstrates disciplined reuse of IP, software, validation, infrastructure, and commercial investments.

·   Ecosystem gaps identified early and closed through internal development, licensing, co-development, or strategic partnerships.

·   Revenue, margin, design-win pipeline, product adoption, and portfolio return improve against agreed business targets.

·   Field, customer, partner, and engineering teams operate from one product narrative, one prioritized roadmap, and transparent decision gates.

Preferred Target Talent Pools

·   Product or platform leaders from embedded processor, MPU, BMC, industrial compute, vision SoC, networking, data-center infrastructure, or edge-AI semiconductor companies. 

·   Experience with products serving multiple markets rather than only a single customer or single vertical. 

·   Experience with customer-funded or anchor-funded platform development models, derivative roadmaps, and ecosystem/software readiness. 

·   Customer-facing credibility with engineering, architecture, platform, and advanced technology teams. 

The strongest candidate will combine engineering credibility, whole-product hardware/software judgment, customer and ecosystem leadership, successful launch evidence, and quantified revenue ownership. 64-bit product experience is preferred, but an exceptional 32-bit platform leader with credible SW/Market Focos/ Linux / MPU adjacency should remain in scope.

Expected Salary Range

$171,000.00 - $296,000.00

The exact Salary will be determined based on qualifications, experience and location.