Principal Product Engineer — System Verification (Emulation)

Job Title

Principal Product Engineer — System Verification (Emulation)

Role Summary

Lead customer engagements to deploy, adopt, and optimize emulation-based verification flows (Palladium) for complex SoC environments. Serve as the primary technical contact for assigned customers and work closely with R&D, field, and support teams to improve verification scalability and productivity.

Goal: increase customer productivity by delivering robust, scalable verification methodologies using hardware‑assisted emulation and providing feedback that influences product direction.

Experience Level

Senior. Typical experience guidance: Bachelor's degree + ~7 years, Master's degree + ~5 years, or PhD + ~1 year (see Education Requirements for full details).

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include end-to-end customer technical leadership, product validation, and enablement of emulation-based verification.

• Drive Palladium hardware emulation engagements from deployment through advanced enablement and ongoing optimization.
• Own the technical relationship for assigned customers, ensuring successful adoption and long-term usage of emulation flows.
• Analyze complex customer verification environments to identify opportunities for improved scalability, performance, and productivity.
• Collaborate with R&D to validate new features, influence product roadmap, and enable customer use cases.
• Develop and maintain technical collateral, reference flows, and example integrations for customers and internal teams.
• Work with field and support teams to reproduce, debug, and resolve complex issues, providing clear root-cause analysis and recommendations.
• Act as a technical mentor and subject-matter expert within the product engineering organization.

Requirements

Key technical and professional requirements. Degree requirements are listed separately under Education Requirements.

Must-have:

• 6–8 years hands-on RTL verification experience with exposure to hardware-assisted verification (emulation or prototyping).
• Proven ability to lead customer engagements: requirements discovery, technical execution, issue resolution, and stakeholder communication.
• Strong fundamentals in digital logic design and RTL development using Verilog/SystemVerilog.
• Experience with simulation-based verification methodologies, testbench development, and debug.
• Working knowledge of Linux-based development environments and common EDA workflows.
• Proficiency in C/C++ and Python for modeling, automation, and analysis.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and root-cause analysis skills; effective written and verbal communication in English.

Nice-to-have:

• Coursework or project experience with FPGA-based designs and verification.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's degree (any field) with a minimum of 7 years of relevant experience; OR Master's degree in Electrical Engineering with a minimum of 5 years of relevant experience; OR PhD with a minimum of 1 year of relevant experience. Fields noted in the posting include Electrical Engineering and related technical disciplines.

Additional Details

Employment term: 40 hours/week. Employment category: CLT. Location: San Jose, CA. Competitive benefits including paid vacation and holidays, 401(k) with employer match, employee stock purchase plan, and medical/dental/vision options.

Compensation note (California): annual salary range stated as $136,500 to $253,500, plus possible bonus, equity, and benefits.

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.