When she was a child in Haifa, Shirit Belfer-Schvartzblat used to dismantle cassette tapes with a screwdriver. If the coil was worn out or torn, she would pry open the case, try to figure out how it was constructed, and whether it could be repaired. "I was always very connected to how things were built, to putting things together, and Lego. Technological things excited me and interested me," she says.
That curiosity eventually led her to a career in the semiconductor industry. Today, Belfer-Schvartzblat is a Senior Director of Chip Design at Nvidia Israel, leading a team of about 160 employees in formal verification, a critical area designed to ensure that complex chips work as planned, before going into production.
Her mother was a middle school and high school science teacher, and her father was an aeronautical engineer with a master's degree from Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, who worked at Rafael and the Israel Electric Corporation, among other places. "I grew up in a very supportive and embracing family that greatly encouraged education. I grew up in a home where knowledge is power."
After military service as a combat engineering instructor and post-army travel, she returned to Israel and began considering what to study. "Going into engineering was very natural for me," she recalls. "As a proud daughter of Haifa, I knew I wanted to go to the Technion, which also appealed to me as my father's daughter."
Her father recommended electrical engineering, in part because of the wide range of fields the degree could lead to. She entered the faculty as someone used to excelling in her studies but quickly discovered the rules had changed.
"I studied hard and scored 20"
She remembers her first day at the Technion well. "The dean gathered us in the auditorium and said, 'You’re all very talented, with very high grades, so it's important for me to tell you this: start getting used to failing,'" Belfer-Schvartzblat recalls. "The first exam was in physics. I studied and studied and got a 20. I was stunned, but I saw the sky hadn’t caved in, rolled up my sleeves, and kept on studying. The second exam was in differential and integral calculus. I got a 31. I was in shock."
In 2005, at the end of her second year at the Technion, Belfer-Schvartzblat decided to gain practical experience by working in parallel with her studies. She went to a job fair with resumé in hand and toured the stalls. At that same fair was Mellanox, then a young and unknown company. She underwent her first technical interview, was invited to a second interview, and at the same time continued interviewing at other companies.
Mellanox, she says, did not want to risk her taking another offer. "That evening, they called, said they wanted me and that, as far as they were concerned, the offer was valid as of that moment. I arrived the next morning and signed a contract."
Mellanox employed about 150 people at the time, and Belfer-Schvartzblat, still a student, joined the chip design group. More than two decades later, she still remembers how quickly the company moved to recruit her.
In her eyes, the principle behind that decision is still relevant today: In the tech industry, where companies compete for in-demand engineers, the ability to identify the right people and recruit them in time is critical. "In the end, in my opinion, this method of bringing in talent is something that hasn't changed to this day."
Now, however, she is on the recruiting side. As a senior manager at Nvidia, she views finding and retaining employees as one of her main tasks. "One of my most significant roles is to identify the most suitable and successful human capital and then also to be able to retain it. Human capital is what makes a difference, and it's our biggest asset as a company."
According to Belfer-Schvartzblat, the importance of employees is all the more evident now, as Nvidia finds itself at the center of the AI boom. "In the end, each and every one of our engineers is influencing the AI revolution," she notes, adding that the daily decisions made in the office ultimately shape the global technological revolution.
Belfer-Schvartzblat compares chip development to urban planning. "There is infrastructure, electricity, water, transportation. Everything is planned in advance, and then at some point you flip the switch, and everything has to work," she explains. The price of any mistake, she says, is very high. "We can't afford to have bugs, because in the end you’re manufacturing the chip, and that’s very expensive."
As part of formal verification, mathematical tools are used to check the design even before production. "We take a very large logical model, break it down into small problems, and offer mathematical proof that the chip works," she says.
The acquisition of Mellanox by Nvidia directly connected the communications technology developed in Israel to the infrastructure underpinning AI systems. Belfer-Schvartzblat likens processors to "brains that think in parallel" and communication chips to a system that allows them to work together. "You may have the smartest brain, but if you’ve got a narrow artery blocking information from passing through, the supercomputer won't work well enough."
Belfer-Schvartzblat says the expertise accumulated in Israel in chip development and communications has made the company’s local operations strategically important to Nvidia. Since acquiring Mellanox, she says, the company has recruited more than 1,000 employees in Israel, three times as many as before.
AI as a superpower
The same revolution driving demand for chips is also changing the way the people who develop them work. Belfer-Schvartzblat says that AI tools are already integrated into Nvidia's development processes, but she doesn't see this as a sign that the need for engineers is disappearing, but rather the opposite: "The number of projects is growing, the number of systems is growing, and the demand is increasing," she explains, noting that what is changing is the role of the engineer. " You have to view artificial intelligence as a superpower that an engineer possesses. I need to know how to manage this superpower."
In addition to the ability to operate AI tools and agents, she adds, engineers need to know how to define a problem and be critical of the outcome. "Ultimately, as an engineer, I have greater responsibility. I'm in no position to say what will happen in ten years."
Between motherhood and management
At the beginning of her career, Belfer-Schvartzblat was one of very few women in the field. However, she wasn’t concerned. "We were a female minority in chip design, and I was also in a female minority at the Technion. At first, it didn't bother me at all." Over the years, and especially when she became a mother, the feeling changed. "I looked around me and I didn't see many female examplars."
About five years ago, she was asked to lead the women's tech activity at Nvidia Israel. Her motivation, she explains, is not only social but also business-driven. "As a recruiting manager, my job is to bring in the most successful human capital. If 50% of the population isn’t adequately represented, it's a loss for the company, too." The activities range from exposing students to technological professions, through meetings with female students, to mentoring women already working in the industry.
Belfer-Schvartzblat, a mother of four, says motherhood has also influenced her management style. "Motherhood has made me a better manager, and the fact that I'm a manager has made me a better mother," she declares. At the same time, she emphasizes the importance of partnership in the home. "A career goes on for decades. There were times when my husband took a step back and I invested more in my career, and at other times, I took a step back."
Asked how employees can be retained at a time when companies are competing for sought-after engineers, Belfer-Schvartzblat does not shy away from discussing compensation. "I'm happy our staff are enjoying Nvidia's success. Employees should enjoy a company's success," she says but emphasizes: "A workplace is much more than what you put in the bank. Nvidia knows how to create a vision and inspire passion for work."
And what does she want to see next? Along with hope that AI will improve areas such as medicine and education, she also has a goal closer to the industry that raised her: "I really want to see a lot more women in decision-making positions five years from now. In general, I'm optimistic."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 8, 2026.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2026.