Staff Engineer, ESSD Validation

Job Title

Staff Engineer, ESSD Validation

Role Summary

The Staff SSD Validation Engineer defines and leads validation strategies for Micron NAND-based SSD systems and solutions. This role drives test-plan development, automation frameworks, and validation across functional, system, performance, reliability, interoperability, and customer-qualification domains.

The position partners with firmware, hardware, systems, product engineering, and hyperscale customers to improve product quality and time-to-market, with a strong emphasis on automation and AI-enabled validation methods.

Experience Level

Senior level. Typical experience: 6–12 years in Embedded Firmware, Storage Systems, or SSD Validation Engineering; 4+ years SSD firmware validation preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead end-to-end validation activities and promote automation and data-driven methods.

• Define validation strategies, test plans, test cases, and automation frameworks for SSD firmware and systems.
• Develop and maintain automated tests for functional, system-level, performance, reliability, interoperability, and customer qualification.
• Lead validation through development, qualification, customer enablement, and sustaining phases.
• Collaborate with hyperscale and datacenter customers to meet qualification and product quality goals.
• Debug protocol and system issues, perform root cause analysis, and drive closure with cross-functional teams.
• Analyze validation results, identify quality risks, and provide actionable recommendations to stakeholders.
• Promote and mentor teams on automation, best practices, and technical excellence.
• Identify and implement AI/ML techniques to automate validation workflows, failure analysis, anomaly detection, and predictive quality analytics.
• Adopt and govern responsible AI usage in validation workflows, ensuring compliance with security and privacy requirements.

Requirements

Core technical requirements and preferred skills for successful execution of the role.

Must-have:

• 6+ years experience in Embedded Firmware, Storage Systems, or SSD Validation Engineering; demonstrated leadership on large programs.
• Deep knowledge of SSD architecture, NAND flash, NVMe, PCIe, OCP Cloud SSD, and enterprise storage specs.
• Proven experience developing automated validation frameworks and integrating tests into CI/continuous validation systems.
• Strong programming skills in Python and experience building test automation frameworks.
• Hands-on debugging experience with NVMe/SAS protocol analyzers (e.g., LeCroy, JDSU) and system-level debugging on Linux and Windows.
• Experience with storage validation platforms and tools (examples: Medusa, SanBlaze, OakGate, UNH, PCIe-CV) and I/O workload/ endurance testing.
• Ability to drive cross-functional technical issues to closure and communicate risks and mitigation plans clearly.

Nice-to-have:

• Experience with datacenter compute/storage environments (Hyper-V, VMware vSphere, VSAN) and cloud infrastructure.
• Experience applying AI/ML, data analytics, or predictive models to validation and quality engineering.
• Experience working directly with hyperscale, enterprise, or cloud storage customers.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field is specified as the expected academic background.

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.