Firmware Engineer II

Job Title

Firmware Engineer II

Role Summary

Member of the DDR PHY IP Front End Design team developing firmware for DDR5 PHY microcontrollers. The role focuses on bare-metal embedded firmware, low-level APIs, firmware-hardware co-verification, and collaborating with hardware designers and memory subsystem architects to implement training algorithms.

Work includes RTL simulation debugging, silicon bring-up support, and interaction with verification and hardware teams to ensure correct PHY operation.

Experience Level

Mid-level (Firmware Engineer II). Typical experience range: approximately 3–7 years in embedded firmware or related roles.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include firmware development, verification collaboration, and debugging across simulation and hardware:

• Develop bare-metal firmware in C for DDR5 PHY microcontrollers and implement low-level APIs.
• Collaborate with hardware designers and memory subsystem architects to derive and implement training algorithms.
• Plan and execute firmware-hardware co-verification with the verification team.
• Develop and debug firmware within RTL-based hardware simulations (C + Verilog co-simulation).
• Support silicon bring-up and debug on bring-up boards.
• Create and use scripts and tools to automate test, debug, and verification tasks.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience:

• Practical experience developing bare-metal firmware for high-speed SerDes or memory-interface PHY blocks.
• Strong C programming skills for embedded systems and familiarity with embedded development IDEs.
• Good knowledge of DDR5 JEDEC specifications, DIMM configurations, and memory interface behavior.
• Comfortable debugging RTL simulations that include firmware and microcontroller subsystems.
• Proficiency with scripting languages such as Shell, Perl, Python, or TCL for automation and verification tasks.
• Experience using verification EDA tools, simulators, and waveform viewers.

Education Requirements

Not specified.

About the Company

Company: Cadence Design Systems

Headquarters: San Jose, California, USA

Cadence Design Systems is a global electronic design automation company that provides software, hardware, and intellectual property for designing advanced semiconductor chips. With over 25 years in the industry, Cadence is known for its innovative technology solutions and has been recognized by Fortune Magazine as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. The company is dedicated to solving complex technical challenges in order to enable customers to create revolutionary products and experiences.