Principal Silicon Design Verification Engineer

Microsoft Microsoft · Big Tech · Mountain View, CA +4 · Silicon Engineering

The Principal Silicon Design Verification Engineer will own the development of C and C++ based test content at the subsystem and SoC levels, build and maintain the C test infrastructure, own the pre-silicon verification strategy and execution for security IP blocks and subsystems, architect and extend SystemVerilog and UVM environments, drive coverage signoff, act as a verification lead, mentor engineers, and improve verification efficiency.

What you'd actually do

  1. Own the development of C and C++ based test content at the subsystem and SoC levels, including bare-metal bring-up code, directed and constrained-random test sequences, and self-checking tests that exercise complex multi-IP flows such as secure boot, key and fuse management, and processor and bus interactions.
  2. Build and maintain the C test infrastructure that the broader team relies on, including startup code, low-level drivers, register access layers, and the build flow (Makefiles, linker scripts, and toolchain setup) needed to compile and run firmware-style tests against the design.
  3. Own the pre-silicon verification strategy and execution for one or more security IP blocks and subsystems and their integration into the SoC, covering test planning, environment architecture, and signoff criteria from early design through tapeout and silicon bring-up.
  4. Architect and extend SystemVerilog and UVM environments that host C-based stimulus, connecting embedded test code to the testbench so processor-driven and stimulus-driven scenarios run together.
  5. Drive coverage signoff across functional, code, and power-aware coverage. Set goals, investigate and close gaps without unjustified exclusions, and apply constrained-random, formal, and gate-level techniques to find bugs and prove test plan completeness.

Skills

Required

  • C
  • C++
  • SystemVerilog
  • UVM
  • Python
  • Makefiles
  • linker scripts
  • toolchain setup
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Computer Engineering
  • Computer Science

Nice to have

  • bare-metal bring-up code
  • directed and constrained-random test sequences
  • self-checking tests
  • secure boot
  • key and fuse management
  • processor and bus interactions
  • low-level drivers
  • register access layers
  • pre-silicon verification strategy
  • security IP blocks
  • subsystems integration
  • SoC integration
  • test planning
  • environment architecture
  • signoff criteria
  • tapeout
  • silicon bring-up
  • embedded test code
  • testbench
  • processor-driven scenarios
  • stimulus-driven scenarios
  • functional coverage
  • code coverage
  • power-aware coverage
  • constrained-random techniques
  • formal techniques
  • gate-level techniques
  • verification lead
  • milestone delivery
  • IP level
  • SoC level
  • mentoring
  • onboarding new team members
  • verification best practices
  • reference models
  • prediction models
  • automation
  • debug tooling
  • scripting languages
  • pre-silicon C test results
  • FPGA prototyping platforms
  • firmware bring-up
  • post-silicon validation

What the JD emphasized

  • security screening requirements
  • export control regulations