System Validation and Emulation Engineer

Job Title

System Validation and Emulation Engineer

Role Summary

Join the System Validation and Emulation team in the central SoC digital hardware organization to improve silicon quality through platform bring‑up, failure analysis, and debug. Work cross‑functionally with architects, designers, verification and software engineers to develop validation strategies and faster debug techniques.

Experience Level

Senior - typically requires 8+ years of relevant SoC design, validation, post‑silicon bring‑up, or related hardware engineering experience.

Responsibilities

The role focuses on platform-level bring‑up, isolation and triage of failures, and developing validation/debug infrastructure and processes.

• Perform SoC and embedded platform bring‑up, debug and root‑cause analysis for silicon and board failures.
• Work with architects, design, verification and software teams to assess test coverage and define strategies to improve it.
• Develop and implement tools, frameworks and workflows to accelerate debug and isolate failing components at system level.
• Create debug plans and partner documentation to enable rapid triage of failures, including PVT and marginality issues.
• Support FPGA emulation, post‑silicon validation, characterization and power correlation activities.

Requirements

Core technical skills and practical experience required and preferred for efficient platform debug and validation.

• 8+ years experience in SoC design, silicon validation, or related hardware engineering work.
• Experience developing silicon validation frameworks, tests or related infrastructure.
• Practical experience with ARM‑based SoCs (CPUs, DSPs, other IPs) and system bring‑up/debug tools (e.g., CoreSight, Trace32).
• Proven ability to debug embedded hardware issues at SoC, interface and board levels using JTAG and software debuggers.
• Solid understanding of embedded systems, board design, signal integrity and SoC architectures.
• Experience collaborating across HW and SW teams for FPGA emulation, post‑silicon bring‑up, validation, characterization and power analysis.
• Nice-to-have: knowledge of low power management, clocking, bus interconnects (AXI, NoC), CoreSight debug infra (STM, ETM, ETB, trace) and system-level performance/power KPIs for mobile/compute SoCs.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's, Master's or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Engineering, Science or a related technical field are listed. The posting also allows equivalent practical experience and references degree+experience mappings (examples shown: Bachelor's +3+ years, Master's +2+ years, PhD +1+ year) as well as other references to 8+ years of relevant experience.

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.