Senior Emulation Engineer

Job Title

Senior Emulation Engineer

Role Summary

Join the verification team to validate SoC-level behavior on hardware emulation platforms and ensure interoperability with commercial AI servers. The role focuses on bringing up and running full-system workloads on Synopsys ZeBu, integrating transactors (XTORs), debugging system failures, and supporting firmware and software bring-up prior to silicon.

Experience Level

Senior - requires 7+ years of hands-on experience in prototyping, emulation, SoC design, or system validation.

Responsibilities

Primary duties cover runtime validation, XTOR integration, and cross-team debugging to find system-level issues before silicon.

• Execute and debug system-level tests, firmware, and software workloads on ZeBu emulation models.
• Bring up and validate secure boot flows (ROM, bootloader, Linux/RTOS) and platform security features (root of trust, attestation, firmware update).
• Triage failures and isolate root cause across RTL, firmware, drivers, testbench, XTORs, and emulation configuration; produce reproducible bug reports.
• Use emulation runtime debug tools (waveforms, triggers, memory/register access, checkpoint/restore) to debug efficiently.
• Run and manage long-running regressions and soak tests; track pass rates and failure trends.
• Perform power-aware and performance validation: activity capture, bandwidth/latency profiling, and benchmarking.
• Integrate, configure, and bring up ZeBu transactors and speed adapters for interfaces such as PCIe, CXL, Ethernet, NVMe, DDR/LPDDR, I2C/I3C/SMBus, SPI, UART, and JTAG.
• Develop host-side control software and drivers for XTORs using C/C++, Python, SystemVerilog DPI, and vendor APIs.
• Debug protocol- and configuration-level issues using protocol analyzers, waveforms, and logs; determine fault domain (DUT, XTOR, clocking, host).
• Maintain XTOR configuration, version control, and documentation across model releases; tune for throughput, latency, and emulation frequency.
• Collaborate with RTL, DV, and software teams to resolve system-level bugs and support SW development.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and hands-on experience for immediate contribution.

• 7+ years working with emulation, prototyping, SoC validation, or similar system validation roles.
• Hands-on experience running and debugging on Synopsys ZeBu or comparable emulators (Palladium, Veloce); familiar with runtime control, waveform capture, and checkpoint/restore.
• Experience integrating and debugging high-speed and low-speed interfaces (PCIe, Ethernet, NVMe, DDR/LPDDR, etc.).
• Familiarity with embedded software bring-up, bootloader/kernel interactions, and system bring-up workflows.
• Proficiency with scripting for automation (Python, Perl, TCL).
• Strong problem solving, debugging, and written/verbal communication skills.

Nice-to-have:

• Experience in design verification, hardware/software co-simulation, Linux device drivers, or bare-metal firmware/boot loader development.
• Experience developing host drivers or test frameworks that interface to real or virtual peripherals.

Education Requirements

BS or MS (or higher) in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.

About the Company

Company: Axiado

Headquarters: San Jose, CA, United States

Axiado is an AI-enhanced security processor company founded in 2017 that develops platform security management and ransomware-detection technologies for cloud datacenters and 5G infrastructure. The firm focuses on system control, management, and secure hardware/software integration to protect critical computing platforms.