Staff Engineer, ESSD Validation

Job Title

Staff Engineer, ESSD Validation

Role Summary

Lead definition and execution of validation strategies for Micron NAND-based SSD systems and firmware, covering functional, system, performance, reliability, interoperability, and customer qualification domains. Collaborate with firmware, hardware, systems, product engineering, and hyperscale customers across the product lifecycle to improve quality and cycle times.

Experience Level

Senior — typically 6–12 years in embedded firmware, storage systems, or SSD validation engineering; 4+ years SSD firmware validation strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Drive and deliver comprehensive validation programs, automation, and technical leadership for SSD products.

• Define validation strategies, test plans, test cases, and automation frameworks for SSD firmware and systems.
• Design, develop, and maintain automated test solutions for functional, system-level, performance, reliability, interoperability, and customer qualification testing.
• Lead validation across development, qualification, customer enablement, and sustaining phases.
• Partner with hyperscale and datacenter customers to meet qualification requirements and shorten cycle times.
• Drive issue identification, debug, root-cause analysis, and closure with firmware, hardware, and system teams.
• Analyze validation results, identify quality risks, and present recommendations to stakeholders and leadership.
• Communicate validation status, technical risks, and mitigation plans across organizations.
• Influence and lead cross-functional teams to meet program milestones.
• Mentor engineers and promote automation, best practices, and validation excellence.
• Identify and apply AI/ML and automation techniques to improve test development, failure analysis, anomaly detection, and predictive quality analytics while following company AI governance.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and proven experience to execute large-scale SSD validation programs.

• 6–12 years in embedded firmware, storage systems, or SSD validation engineering; proven leadership in validation for large programs.
• Deep expertise in SSD architecture, NAND flash technologies, storage subsystems, and enterprise storage specifications (NVMe, PCIe, OCP Cloud SSD).
• Experience debugging NVMe/SAS protocol issues using protocol analyzers (e.g., LeCroy, JDSU).
• Experience developing validation plans for I/O workloads, NVMe protocols, media management, endurance, and reliability testing.
• Hands-on experience with storage validation platforms and tools (examples: Medusa, SanBlaze, OakGate, UNH, PCIe-CV) and integrating tests into CI/automation frameworks.
• Strong programming and test automation skills (Python preferred) and experience with large-scale automation environments.
• Strong Linux and Windows debugging skills and knowledge of CPU, memory, PCIe, drivers, OS, firmware, and hardware interactions.
• Ability to analyze complex technical data, drive issues to closure across organizations, and produce clear technical documentation.
• Experience working with datacenter compute and storage environments (e.g., Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware vSphere, VSAN) is a plus.
• Demonstrated ability to adopt and validate AI-assisted tools for test generation, log analysis, and productivity while ensuring technical accuracy and compliance.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.

About the Company

Company: Micron Technology

Headquarters: Boise, Idaho, USA

Micron Technology is a global leader in memory and storage solutions, dedicated to transforming how the world uses information. The company offers a diverse portfolio of high-performance DRAM, NAND, and NOR memory products under the Micron and Crucial brands. With a commitment to customer focus and technological innovation, Micron drives advancements in artificial intelligence, 5G, and other data-centric applications, empowering users to learn, communicate, and progress.