The Senior Engineer in Pre-Silicon Validation & Firmware Development will drive the development, validation, and optimization of firmware for advanced SoC and storage solutions across pre-silicon and post-silicon phases. This role involves hands-on firmware design, ASIC bring-up, protocol integration, and enabling early validation platforms, along with close collaboration across hardware, validation, and product teams to ensure robust and high-performance system delivery.
Key Responsibilities
- Pre-Silicon Validation & Bring-up:
- Lead pre-silicon validation activities by enabling firmware-driven validation on simulation, emulation, and FPGA platforms.
- Drive ASIC bring-up activities, ensuring seamless hardware-software integration during early silicon phases.
- Develop validation strategies and test plans to identify design issues early in the development lifecycle.
- Collaborate with design and verification teams to debug complex system-level issues across storage subsystems.
- Firmware Development & Optimization:
- Design, develop, and optimize embedded firmware for storage solutions, including bootloaders and low-level drivers.
- Implement and enhance firmware for NAND-based storage systems, ensuring high reliability, performance, and scalability.
- Perform code optimization, refactoring, and cleanup to maintain a robust and maintainable firmware codebase.
- Drive complete test coverage (CTC) initiatives to eliminate redundant or unused code paths.
- Protocol Integration & System Enablement:
- Develop and integrate industry-standard storage protocols such as NVMe, UFS, SD, and UART into firmware stacks.
- Ensure protocol compliance, interoperability, and performance optimization across multiple platforms.
- Enable system-level validation by integrating firmware with hardware interfaces and controllers.
- Validation Frameworks & Test Development:
- Develop automated test frameworks, tools, and utilities for firmware validation, including BER generation and protocol testing.
- Create comprehensive test plans and execute validation suites across pre-silicon and post-silicon environments.
- Leverage lab equipment such as oscilloscopes and logic analyzers for debugging and validation.
- Automation & Infrastructure Development:
- Develop scripts and tools to automate firmware testing, debugging, and validation workflows.
- Enhance infrastructure for scalable and efficient validation across multiple projects and platforms.
- Collaborate with infrastructure teams to optimize resource utilization and validation throughput.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration & Technical Leadership:
- Act as a technical lead for firmware and validation activities, mentoring junior engineers and guiding best practices.
- Collaborate with design, verification, product, and business teams to align technical solutions with product requirements.
- Drive design reviews, root-cause analysis, and resolution of critical system issues.
- Tools, Debug & Domain Expertise:
- Utilize debugging and development tools including GIT, JIRA, Linux environments, and lab instrumentation effectively.
- Apply deep expertise in NAND storage, memory subsystems, and embedded systems to solve complex problems.
- Continuously improve methodologies aligned with industry best practices in firmware and validation domains.
