Emulation and Prototyping Engineer

Job Title

Emulation and Prototyping Engineer

Role Summary

Design and deliver FPGA prototypes and hardware emulation environments for NVIDIA GPUs, SoCs, NICs, and switches. Work includes RTL partitioning and modification, synthesis/place-and-route, emulator compilation, bring-up, debug, and performance optimization.

Collaborate with architects, designers, verification, validation, and software teams to enable pre-silicon software development, validation, and performance analysis for multi-ASIC systems and DGX topologies.

Experience Level

Mid-level — typically requires 3+ years of relevant experience in FPGA prototyping and/or hardware emulation.

Responsibilities

Primary duties include building, optimizing, and supporting FPGA prototypes and emulation platforms for complex SoCs and multi-ASIC systems.

• Partition RTL and modify designs for FPGA/emulator friendliness; run synthesis, place-and-route, and emulator compilation flows.
• Analyze and improve prototype and emulation performance and timing; generate bitstreams and images.
• Bring up designs on FPGA prototyping and emulation platforms; lead complex debug and root-cause analysis.
• Release prototypes to internal customers and support validation, software enablement, and debugging activities.
• Develop and maintain bring-up and testing infrastructure; verify correctness across configurations.
• Enable pre-silicon software development and performance analysis using prototypes and emulators.
• Work across teams to implement DGX and multi-ASIC system topologies on prototyping platforms.

Requirements

Required technical skills and practical experience for successful execution of the role.

• Strong understanding of FPGA prototyping and hardware emulation architectures, devices, flows, and tools.
• Hands-on experience with Synopsys ProtoCompiler or Synplify Premier, and Xilinx Vivado; familiarity with Synopsys ZeBu or Siemens Veloce.
• Exposure to ASIC design and verification tools such as VCS, Verdi, or equivalent; familiarity with GDB.
• Proficiency in Verilog and SystemVerilog and solid digital design fundamentals.
• Understanding of protocols including PCIe, CXL, NVLINK, USB, CHI, and CPU–GPU coherency.
• Experience with lab FPGA debug methodologies and equipment (Identify/ChipScope, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers).
• Strong C/C++ skills for emulation-friendly testbenches and transactors; experience minimizing host–emulator communication bottlenecks.
• Ability to develop DPI/PLI/SystemC-based interfaces and software infrastructures for high-speed validation and bring-up.
• Nice-to-have: scripting (Perl/shell/Tcl/Python), memory bring-up (LPDDR5/6, DDR5/6), prior HAPS/ZeBu/Veloce experience, and large-scale emulation performance/validation expertise.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field. The posting specifies 3+ years of experience in FPGA prototyping and/or hardware emulation.

About the Company

Company: NVIDIA

Headquarters: Santa Clara, California, USA

NVIDIA is a global leader in accelerated computing, renowned for its innovative solutions in AI and digital twins that transform diverse industries. The company specializes in networking technologies, providing end-to-end InfiniBand and Ethernet solutions for servers and storage that optimize performance and scalability. NVIDIA serves sectors such as high-performance computing, enterprise data centers, and cloud computing, constantly reinventing its products and services to stay ahead in the market.