CPU Staff/Senior Staff Engineer - ARM GIC & CPU Post-Silicon Validation

Job Title

CPU Staff/Senior Staff Engineer - ARM GIC & CPU Post-Silicon Validation

Role Summary

Lead post-silicon validation and bring-up of ARM-based CPU interrupt subsystems, with ownership of interrupt-controller functionality across CPU, firmware, power-management and OS/hypervisor interactions. The role works within Hardware Engineering and coordinates with CPU architecture, firmware, kernel and verification teams to identify and resolve silicon issues.

Experience Level

Senior. Preferred 7–16 years of CPU/SoC post-silicon validation or silicon bring-up experience; actual minimum experience varies by degree (see Education Requirements).

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities focus on validating interrupt controller behavior on silicon and driving root-cause analysis across software and hardware.

• Develop and execute post-silicon validation plans for ARM GICv3/GICv4 and CPU interrupt subsystems.
• Validate GIC components: Distributor (GICD), Redistributor (GICR), CPU interface, ITS, and interrupt flows (SGI, PPI, SPI, LPI).
• Validate routing, prioritization, masking, preemption, affinity, acknowledgement and EOI behavior.
• Create stress scenarios: concurrent interrupts, high interrupt rates, multicore routing, SGI broadcast, interrupt migration and CPU hotplug, and interrupt handling during idle/low-power transitions.
• Validate GIC behavior across CPU power collapse, suspend/resume, reset and DVFS transitions.
• Debug lost, unexpected or stuck interrupts, latency issues and incorrect GIC state using register dumps, trace, kernel logs and waveform correlation.
• Develop automation and stress workloads for regression testing and validation coverage tracking.
• Track defects, risks and closure status in engineering tracking systems and collaborate with cross-functional teams to root-cause issues.

Requirements

Required technical skills and tools.

• Deep understanding of ARMv8/ARMv9 architectures and ARM GICv3/GICv4.
• Hands-on post-silicon validation or silicon bring-up experience on ARM-based multicore SoCs.
• Knowledge of interrupt concepts: affinity, routing, priority, masking, preemption, secure/non-secure handling, ITS/MSI and virtual interrupts (vGIC).
• Understanding of CPU power states, clock/power collapse, reset sequences and low-power entry/exit.
• Proficient in C/C++, Python and shell scripting for test automation.
• Experience with hardware/software debug tools (JTAG, debuggers) and register/trace analysis.

Nice-to-have:

• Experience with virtualization, hypervisors and virtual interrupt handling.
• Experience converting architectural requirements into validation scenarios, stress tests and measurable coverage.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Engineering or related field with 3+ years of hardware-engineering or related experience; OR Master's degree in those fields with 2+ years' experience; OR PhD in those fields with 1+ year of experience. Fields referenced include Computer Science and Electrical/Electronics Engineering; equivalent practical experience is accepted per the degree-based alternatives in the posting.

About the Company

Company: Qualcomm

Headquarters: San Diego, California, United States

Qualcomm is a global leader in semiconductor and telecommunications equipment, specializing in mobile technologies and innovations. Known for its Adreno GPUs, the company provides solutions enabling advancements in mobile gaming, AI, VR/AR, and autonomous driving. Qualcomm's cutting-edge technology and commitment to high-performance, power-efficient designs drive the evolution of mobile graphics and connectivity worldwide.