Senior Pre-Silicon DFT / Design Verification Engineer

Job Title

Senior Pre-Silicon DFT / Design Verification Engineer

Role Summary

Join Arm’s Solutions Test Team to ensure pre-silicon DFT and design verification efforts translate effectively into high-volume ATE production tests. The role bridges DFT, design verification, manufacturing test and ATE enablement to reduce post-silicon risk and improve test robustness and cost.

Experience Level

Senior — typically 8–10+ years of experience in DFT, design verification, manufacturing test, or related semiconductor test roles.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities focus on pre-silicon readiness, validation, and handoff of test collateral for wafer sort and final test.

• Support pre-silicon DFT verification for logic and memory test structures (scan chains, scan compression, MBIST, test access networks).
• Verify ATE-compatible test architectures and compatibility with production ATE flows and tester constraints.
• Review RTL and gate-level netlists for ATPG readiness and identify structural issues affecting coverage, pattern quality, test time, power, yield, or manufacturability.
• Execute and analyse pre-silicon ATPG runs to assess early test coverage, pattern quality, pattern volume, and production readiness.
• Develop and maintain DV environments to validate DFT logic, test modes, constraints, clocks, resets, and power-domain interactions.
• Run RTL, gate-level, and timing-aware simulations (including SDF-backed) to validate scan, reset, and test-mode robustness.
• Debug test-mode, scan, ATPG, MBIST, reset and clocking failures and coordinate fixes with design teams.
• Collaborate with ATE and Product Engineering teams to hand off pre-silicon test collateral into wafer sort and final test flows.
• Support early ATE test strategy definition for wafer sort/final test, including scan, MBIST, and functional assist content.
• Identify and mitigate risks related to test time, pattern data volume, tester memory, and power during design.
• Contribute to automation (Tcl, Python, Bash) and version-controlled workflows for DFT, ATPG, simulation, and test collateral.
• Support regression, coverage reporting, and debug automation for DFT/DV test validation.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills, tools experience, and collaboration capabilities required for the role.

• 8–10+ years of relevant industry experience in DFT, DV, manufacturing test, or semiconductor test.
• Solid understanding of scan architectures, ATPG concepts, scan compression, and pattern generation flows.
• Knowledge of MBIST and memory test principles; ability to validate memory test behavior.
• Understanding of test modes, resets, clocks, constraints, power domains and their impact on DFT.
• Hands-on experience with Siemens Tessent ATPG/DFT/diagnosis or equivalent tools.
• Experience with RTL and gate-level simulation using industry simulators such as VCS or Questa.
• Ability to debug scan, ATPG, MBIST, reset, clocking, and test-mode failures in RTL or gate-level environments.
• Proficiency with Linux/Unix and at least one scripting language (Tcl, Python, or Bash).
• Experience working across DFT, DV, Design, Product Engineering, and ATE teams; strong analytical and debug skills.

Nice-to-have:

• Exposure to ATE platforms (for example, Advantest V93000/EXAScale, Teradyne UltraFLEX) and tester-ready pattern formats.
• Experience with pre- to post-silicon test correlation, power-aware ATPG, scan insertion constraints, and low-power test validation.
• Familiarity with yield, diagnosis, silicon bring-up, failure analysis, and pattern conversion flows (STIL/tester-ready).
• Knowledge of IEEE standards such as 1149, 1500, 1687, or 1838 and production diagnosis methodologies.

Education Requirements

Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent practical experience) in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field is required or an acceptable equivalent.

About the Company

Company: Arm

Headquarters: Cambridge, United Kingdom

ARM is a global leader in semiconductor and software design, driving innovation in computing technology. The company specializes in designing processors and systems that provide the essential building blocks for electronic devices. ARM's architecture is widely used in smartphones, servers, and IoT devices, and its collaborative culture fosters bold thinking, diversity, and high-impact benefits for its talented workforce.