Principal Design Verification Engineer

Job Title

Principal Design Verification Engineer

Role Summary

Lead verification of SoC and silicon IP for Microsoft AI accelerators within the AI Silicon Engineering SoC Design Verification team. The role develops verification strategy, high-quality verification environments and tests, and drives pre-silicon and post-silicon validation across block, chip, and system levels.

Experience Level

Senior / Principal level. Typical background: multi-year experience in silicon verification (see Education Requirements for official experience equivalencies).

Responsibilities

Design, develop, and execute verification environments and tests; collaborate with architects, designers, and cross-functional teams to ensure feature and quality coverage.

• Create complex verification environments and test suites for block, chip, and system verification.
• Define and drive verification plans covering strategy, environments, tests, and verification requirements for IP/subsystem/SoC levels.
• Develop verification components such as scoreboards, sequences, constraints, assertions, and functional coverage.
• Debug and triage testbench, simulation, and emulation failures; perform root-cause analysis.
• Develop reference models and participate in post-silicon validation and bring-up.
• Implement scalable build and test infrastructure (Makefiles, scripts) and apply agile practices including code reviews and sprint planning.
• Collaborate across sites and geographies with architecture, firmware, design, validation, and product teams.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and workplace requirements follow; preferred skills are listed separately.

• Strong experience creating simulation environments, developing tests, and debugging for multiple silicon IPs or systems.
• Proficiency with verification languages and methodologies: SystemVerilog, UVM, assertions, stimulus generation, and coverage closure.
• Experience with hardware description languages and software: Verilog or VHDL, C/C++, and scripting languages such as Python, Ruby, or Perl.
• Practical experience with hardware emulation, FPGA-based verification, or post-silicon validation.
• Ability to write synthesizable code and familiarity with embedded hardware design.
• Experience developing test infrastructure, automation scripts, and scalable build systems.
• Strong debugging skills and experience triaging simulation/emulation failures.
• Ability to work in cross-functional teams and communicate effectively across engineering disciplines.
• Workplace requirements: ability to meet Microsoft Cloud background check and any required security screenings; must provide proof of citizenship or lawful status when required for export-controlled information access.

Preferred:

• Extensive chip and computer architecture experience.
• CPU or graphics core verification experience.
• Firmware development experience, including secure and non-secure boot flows.
• Experience with software development practices and large code bases.

Education Requirements

Doctorate (PhD) in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field plus 3+ years technical engineering experience; OR Master's degree in those fields plus 6+ years experience; OR Bachelor's degree in those fields plus 8+ years experience; OR equivalent practical experience.

About the Company

Company: Microsoft

Headquarters: Redmond, Washington, United States

Microsoft is a global technology company that develops and sells software, services, devices, and solutions. Known for its Windows operating system, Office suite, and Azure cloud platform, Microsoft aims to empower individuals and organizations around the world to achieve more. The company fosters a culture of innovation and inclusion, focusing on delivering trusted experiences to customers and partners globally.