Principal Emulation Engineer

Job Title

Principal Emulation Engineer

Role Summary

Lead emulation strategy and enablement for the Emulation Center of Excellence within the Custom Compute and Storage (CCS) business unit. Deliver emulation infrastructure, develop and integrate pre-silicon hardware models, and support verification, software development, and system validation to ensure high-quality SoC tape-outs.

Work cross-functionally with RTL design, verification, firmware teams and EDA vendors to drive emulation bring-up, performance optimization, and automation of emulation flows.

Experience Level

Senior level (Principal). Preferred experience: 10+ years in verification and firmware/software development; alternatives noted in Education Requirements.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include:

• Lead development and integration of SubSystem emulation models on industry platforms (e.g., Veloce, ZeBu, Palladium).
• Perform emulation bring-up: clock/reset sequencing, firmware boot, and system validation using pre-silicon models.
• Create and execute emulation test plans to support verification, performance analysis, software development, and system validation.
• Debug complex SoC and subsystem issues across RTL, firmware, emulation platforms, and toolchain interactions.
• Optimize emulation performance through model partitioning, timing refinement, and runtime efficiency improvements.
• Automate flows and improve productivity through scripting and tooling enhancements.
• Collaborate with RTL design, verification, and firmware teams to define requirements and ensure seamless model integration.
• Interface with EDA vendors to evaluate tools, resolve technical issues, and drive feature improvements.

Requirements

Key skills and attributes — must-haves and useful additions are listed separately.

• Must-have: Proficiency in SystemVerilog and UVM.
• Experience writing detailed test plans and building directed and random verification environments.
• Strong scripting skills (Python, Perl, Tcl, shell) and experience with EDA verification tools.
• Object-oriented design and implementation experience.
• Good understanding of Linux operating systems.
• Proficient programming skills, especially C++ and ARM assembly.
• Experience debugging across RTL, firmware, emulation platforms, and toolchain interactions.
• Ability to optimize emulation performance and automate flows for productivity improvements.
• Experience working with EDA vendors (Synopsys, Cadence, Siemens) to resolve technical issues.
• Professional attributes: diligent, detail-oriented, self-directed, and able to handle differing opinions and fast-paced work.

Nice-to-have:

• Familiarity with networking protocols.

Education Requirements

Degree requirement: Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Computer Science; or Master’s/PhD in a related field. The posting also allows equivalent experience: BS with 10+ years of relevant verification/firmware/software development experience, or MS/PhD with 5+ years of relevant experience.

About the Company

Company: Marvell Technology

Headquarters: Santa Clara, California, United States

Marvell’s semiconductor solutions serve as essential building blocks of the data infrastructure connecting our world, driving innovation across enterprise, cloud, AI, and carrier architectures. The company focuses on creating transformative technology that shapes the future.