Pre/Post-Silicon Validation Framework, Tools and Infrastructure Development Engineer

Job Title

Pre/Post-Silicon Validation Framework, Tools and Infrastructure Development Engineer

Role Summary

Work on embedded software frameworks, validation infrastructure, and platform software to support pre-silicon and post-silicon System-on-Chip (SoC) validation and bring-up. The role partners with architecture, design, firmware, verification, and validation teams to enable silicon bring-up, feature validation, and system-level debug.

Experience Level

Mid-level - target experience: approximately 6–10 years industry experience in embedded software, system software, SoC validation, silicon enablement, or related domains.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include delivering and maintaining validation frameworks and infrastructure across simulation, emulation, FPGA, and silicon environments.

• Architect, design, implement, and maintain scalable embedded software frameworks and platform abstraction layers for SoC validation.
• Develop reusable middleware, system services, and validation infrastructure for multicore and heterogeneous compute environments.
• Build and maintain bring-up, validation, and debug infrastructure for bare-metal, RTOS, emulation, FPGA, and post-silicon environments.
• Root-cause and debug complex system-level issues spanning hardware, firmware, OS, and framework software.
• Design automated validation, regression, and release workflows and integrate them into CI environments.
• Integrate static analysis, build systems, and toolchains into development and release processes.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to enable efficient silicon bring-up, feature validation, and performance/debug analysis.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience; desirable items listed separately.

• Strong software architecture and framework design experience for embedded systems using C/C++ and Assembly.
• Extensive low-level software development experience: boot code, exception/interrupt handling, startup sequences, and C–Assembly interworking.
• Deep knowledge of CPU and microarchitectural concepts (ARMv8/ARMv9, x86, PowerPC) and multicore/heterogeneous SoC behavior (SMP, AMP, cross-core interactions).
• Expertise in system-level issues: cache and I/O coherency, memory ordering, synchronization primitives, inter-processor communication, and concurrency debugging.
• Strong operating systems knowledge (RTOS and Linux kernel internals): threading, scheduling, locking, MMU/virtual memory, and kernel synchronization.
• Experience with build infrastructures, compiler toolchains, linker internals, Makefiles, linker/scatter scripts; familiarity with GCC, Clang/LLVM and toolchain root-cause analysis.
• Proven debugging skills with JTAG, hardware trace, emulation, FPGA, and silicon debug tools; ability to correlate hardware/firmware/software traces.
• Proficiency in Python and shell scripting for automation, test frameworks, and tooling.

Nice-to-have:

• Hands-on experience with pre-silicon emulation, FPGA prototyping, board/silicon bring-up and post-silicon debug.
• Familiarity with CI/CD systems, automated regression infrastructure, containerized development environments, and release management.
• Experience with debug/performance tools (e.g., Lauterbach Trace32), and source control systems such as Git and Perforce.
• Experience mentoring engineers and leading framework/infrastructure initiatives.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's, Master's or PhD in Computer Science, Computer/Computer Engineering, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Electronics & Communication Engineering or a closely related engineering field. Posted qualifications include degree-based experience guidance (B.S. +4 years, M.S. +3 years, PhD +2 years) and the role overall expects roughly 6–10 years of industry experience.

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.