Senior Speed Characterization Engineer - Silicon Co-Design Group
NVIDIAJob Title
Senior Speed Characterization Engineer - Silicon Co-Design Group
Role Summary
The Senior Speed Characterization Engineer measures and validates silicon performance across voltage, process, temperature, and workload conditions and provides authoritative data used by architecture, design, and product teams.
This role sits in the Silicon Co-Design Group and owns the flow from first power-on through production sign-off: correlation of pre-silicon models to measured silicon, root-cause analysis of frequency/timing issues, and building automated data and test infrastructure.
Experience Level
Senior — requires substantial hands-on silicon experience. The posting requests 5+ years of hands-on silicon experience (bring-up, post-silicon speed validation, frequency characterization, or timing analysis).
Responsibilities
Primary responsibilities include characterization, correlation, failure analysis, and tool development to support decision-making across architecture and design.
- Own silicon speed characterization from bring-up through production sign-off (frequency, Vmin/Vmax, timing margins across PVT).
- Close correlation gaps between pre-silicon timing predictions and measured silicon; quantify model divergences and produce actionable analysis.
- Trace failures to root causes (critical paths, clocking issues, microarchitectural interactions, process corners) and drive resolution across teams.
- Develop automated test orchestration, data pipelines, and analysis flows; apply AI/ML tools where appropriate while managing associated risks.
- Present data-driven tradeoffs and recommendations to architecture, VLSI, ASIC, firmware, and product stakeholders.
Requirements
Core qualifications and technical skills required for the role. (Education details are listed separately below.)
- 5+ years hands-on experience with silicon: bring-up, post-silicon speed validation, frequency characterization, or timing analysis on real hardware.
- Strong computer architecture fundamentals: pipelines, clocking, memory hierarchies, and how microarchitectural choices affect frequency and power.
- Depth in static timing analysis and critical-path identification; ability to read and reason about timing reports at block and chip level.
- Proficiency in silicon margining, guard-banding, and PVT/binning dependencies.
- Statistical fluency and experimental mindset; solid data analysis skills to interpret measurement results.
- Scripting and tool development skills (Python, Perl, or C/C++).
Education Requirements
BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Systems Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
About the Company
Company: NVIDIA
Headquarters: Santa Clara, California, USA
NVIDIA is a global leader in accelerated computing, renowned for its innovative solutions in AI and digital twins that transform diverse industries. The company specializes in networking technologies, providing end-to-end InfiniBand and Ethernet solutions for servers and storage that optimize performance and scalability. NVIDIA serves sectors such as high-performance computing, enterprise data centers, and cloud computing, constantly reinventing its products and services to stay ahead in the market.
