Aion Silicon (formerly Sondrel), a premier ASIC/SoC architecture and design partner, today announced the appointment of Allen Sansano as Vice President of Engineering.
With over three decades of ASIC engineering leadership experience, Sansano will lead engineering execution across Aion Silicon’s global development organization. He brings deep expertise in semiconductor architecture, execution, and global leadership to Aion Silicon as it continues to deliver complex AI, automotive, HPC, 5G, and networking designs.
Sansano joins from Meta, where he led advanced ASIC development accelerating Computer Vision and Image Signal Processing for next-generation Augmented Reality devices, while also pioneering AI-assisted semiconductor design methodologies. Prior to Meta, he served as Vice President of Engineering at Wave Computing, leading the MIPS Division across the full engineering stack — encompassing architecture, design, verification, physical design, DFT, systems, and software.
“Allen is one of those rare engineering leaders who combines deep technical expertise, global team-building experience, and a track record of delivering at scale that is genuinely uncommon in this industry,” said Oliver Jones, CEO of Aion Silicon. “We need to continuously raise the bar on how we engineer, how we execute, and how we lead. Allen has done exactly that throughout an extraordinary career, and I’m delighted to have him on the team to help Aion Silicon take that next step.”
Much of Sansano’s career has been built at high-growth startups spanning audio, video, graphics, AI, CPU, and networking. He also served as Entrepreneur in Residence at Tallwood Venture Capital, where he authored the investment thesis for Audience and subsequently joined the company, helping guide it to a successful IPO. Throughout his career, he has worked hands-on with global engineering teams across India, Singapore, Shanghai, Manila, Colombo, and Tel Aviv.
“I’ve spent my career building engineering teams capable of delivering complex silicon at scale,” said Sansano. “Aion Silicon is tackling some of the most interesting challenges in today’s AI and compute architecture, and I’m excited to help navigate our global teams to push the boundaries of what advanced silicon can achieve.”
Outside of work, Sansano is the founder, president, and competitor of the USA National Kayak Fishing Team, competing internationally and earning medals on the world stage.
About Aion Silicon
Aion Silicon is a trusted partner in high-performance semiconductor design, specializing in advanced System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions – including tailored ASICs – for AI, automotive, HPC, 5G, networking, and other applications. Its full-service, high-touch engineering model with consultative project leadership guides customers from SoC architecture and IP selection through design, foundry tapeout, and volume production. With over 20 years of experience in SoC architecture, front-end and back-end services, Aion Silicon reduces technical and economic risk for customers, accelerating time-to-market, while optimizing for commercial success. As a foundry-neutral and IP-agnostic partner with hundreds of successful tapeouts, Aion Silicon leverages a world-class ecosystem to deliver tailored solutions that meet each customer’s unique needs. To learn more, visit www.aionsilicon.com.
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