Senior Software Engineer – Benchmarking, Performance & Competitive Analysis

Job Title

Senior Software Engineer – Benchmarking, Performance & Competitive Analysis

Role Summary

Lead and establish the benchmarking and competitive analysis program in Austin, focusing on interface- and solution-level performance across industrial networking, latency/bandwidth, graphics, and AI workloads. Produce repeatable methodologies, automated test frameworks, and actionable reports to inform product roadmap, positioning, and customer engagements.

Experience Level

Senior - requires 7+ years of experience in embedded systems performance analysis, benchmarking, or competitive analysis in the semiconductor or related industries.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include designing and executing benchmarks, building automation, and delivering analysis to engineering and commercial teams.

• Design and run systematic, reproducible benchmark campaigns comparing Renesas platforms to competitor solutions.
• Develop standardized benchmark methodologies and test harnesses for fair cross-vendor comparisons.
• Benchmark interfaces: Ethernet, PCIe, USB, DDR memory interfaces, and serial interfaces using protocol/logic analyzers and oscilloscopes.
• Perform solution-level benchmarking across industrial networking (TSN, PROFINET, EtherCAT, Modbus, OPC UA), latency & bandwidth, graphics (GPU/display/OpenGL/Vulkan), and AI inference (NPU/DSP/CPU, MLPerf).
• Build automated benchmark frameworks and continuous regression tracking; script test orchestration and analysis (Python).
• Author competitive-analysis reports and present findings to engineering leadership, product management, and sales teams.
• Support customer-facing demonstrations and technical due diligence.
• Collaborate with architecture and marketing teams to translate benchmark insights into product requirements.

Requirements

Must-have qualifications and skills for immediate contribution.

• 7+ years experience in embedded systems performance analysis, benchmarking, or competitive-analysis roles in the semiconductor or related industry.
• Proven experience designing and executing rigorous, reproducible benchmark campaigns and analysis.
• Hands-on experience with industrial communication protocols and network latency/bandwidth measurement methodologies (packet generators, RFC‑style testing).
• Experience with graphics/compute APIs and profiling (OpenGL ES, OpenGL, Vulkan, OpenCL) and standard benchmark suites (SPEC, CoreMark, Dhrystone, LMbench, GLMark, LuxMark, Stream).
• Proficiency with performance profiling tools; experience using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and protocol analyzers for interface characterization.
• Automation and data-analysis skills (Python); statistical rigor in measurements (variance analysis, confidence intervals, controlled A/B comparisons).
• Embedded systems software experience: Embedded Linux (Yocto, buildroot), RTOS (FreeRTOS, Zephyr); understanding of ARM and/or RISC‑V architectures, cache hierarchy, DMA, and SoC datapaths.

Nice-to-have:

• Familiarity with competitor ecosystems (TI Sitara/AM, NXP i.MX, ST, Microchip).
• Experience contributing to industry benchmark standards (EEMBC, MLPerf) or AI/ML inference benchmarking (MLPerf, ONNX Runtime, TensorFlow Lite, CMSIS‑NN).
• Experience with hardware emulation, early silicon bring-up, or supporting sales with technical due diligence.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Electrical Engineering is specified in the source posting.

About the Company

Company: Renesas

Headquarters: Hitachinaka, Japan

Renesas is a global leader in embedded semiconductor solutions, providing high-quality products across automotive, industrial, infrastructure, and IoT sectors. With over 22,000 employees in more than 30 countries, the company focuses on scalable solutions that enhance user experience and drive innovation while committed to sustainability and energy efficiency.