Staff Engineer - Post-Si Validation

Job Title

Staff Engineer - Post-Si Validation

Role Summary

Senior engineer on the Snapdragon SoC silicon validation team focused on post-silicon bring-up, validation software content, and end-to-end regression for production enablement. Works with IP validation, systems validation, and lab teams to validate features, measure KPIs, and debug silicon.

Experience Level

Senior - role expects experienced engineers; qualification-dependent experience guidance provided in Education Requirements.

Responsibilities

Key day-to-day responsibilities include:

• Bring up post-silicon validation infrastructure (SVE convex infra, IST framework) and enable VI content in production.
• Analyze IP architecture and collaborate with IP and system validation teams to define validation requirements and implement validation software content.
• Develop, port, and enhance validation tests and frameworks for SoC bring-up.
• Own and execute frequent SoC regression suites, covering design corner cases for power and performance.
• Run validation releases on lab benches, support SLT teams, and perform hardware/software debug.
• Use silicon debug hooks to collect power, performance, coverage and other KPI metrics and report findings.
• Document issues, coordinate debugging, and follow up with relevant teams for fixes and verification.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience:

• Strong understanding of processor architecture; experience with multicore/multiprocessor systems, SMP and heterogeneous cores.
• Proficient in C for low-level programming; familiarity with assembly and C/assembly interworking.
• Knowledge of operating systems/RTOS/Linux kernel internals, including scheduling, locking, MMU/paging.
• Experience using JTAG-based debuggers, compilers, linkers and common silicon debug tools.
• Practical experience with software development lifecycle and test/regression development.
• Hands-on experience in silicon validation, lab bring-up, or production validation flows.

Nice-to-have:

• Experience with emulation/pre-silicon environments, FPGA/emulation bring-up, or hardware-software co-debug on fresh SoC designs.
• Familiarity with SoC architecture elements (interconnects, power management) and power/performance KPI-driven software.
• Knowledge of ARM Cortex, x86 or PowerPC CPU and memory system architecture; weakly ordered memory models and memory barriers.
• Experience optimizing multi-threaded applications for performance and power; exposure to ASIC design methodology.

Education Requirements

Qualification-dependent requirement: Bachelor's degree in Science, Engineering or related field plus 4+ years of relevant ASIC/SoC design, verification, validation or integration experience; OR Master's degree plus 3+ years; OR PhD plus 2+ years. Equivalent practical experience in place of a degree is commonly accepted by the employer.

About the Company

Company: Qualcomm

Headquarters: San Diego, California, United States

Qualcomm is a global leader in semiconductor and telecommunications equipment, specializing in mobile technologies and innovations. Known for its Adreno GPUs, the company provides solutions enabling advancements in mobile gaming, AI, VR/AR, and autonomous driving. Qualcomm's cutting-edge technology and commitment to high-performance, power-efficient designs drive the evolution of mobile graphics and connectivity worldwide.