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Senior Principal Verification Engineer - Accelerated Verification IP
Accepting applicationsCadence · San Jose, CA
Full-Time Mid_senior AICadenceEthernetPCIeSystemVerilog
Posted
6d ago
Category
Verification
Experience
Mid_senior
Country
United States
Job Description
The AVIP (Accelerated Verification IP) and Virtual Bridge (VB) business is a core part of Cadence’s Virtual Emulation and System Verification portfolio, enabling high‑performance verification on Palladium and Protium platforms. The team builds high‑performance protocol solutions that enable customers to verify complex SoCs and systems at much higher speed and scale than traditional simulation.
Together, AVIP and VB are critical to customers building high‑performance compute, AI, networking, and memory‑coherent systems, where early software bring‑up, performance analysis, and protocol compliance are essential.
The AVIP / Virtual Bridge R&D team designs, implements, and productizes protocol solutions that span hardware, software, and system‑level verification. The team works across multiple layers, including:
Protocol architecture and feature definition
High‑performance transactor and BFM development
Hardware‑software co‑simulation and emulation flows
Debug, logging, performance profiling, and compliance features
Customer enablement, escalations, and interoperability validation
The team supports a broad portfolio of industry‑standard protocols, such as PCIe, CXL, Ethernet, USB, UCIe, and emerging interconnects, and works closely with emulation platform teams, controller/PHY teams, and customers.
This role will contribute directly to the development and enhancement of PCIe/CXL AVIP and/or PCIe/CXL Virtual Bridge products, focusing on protocol functionality, performance, and robustness. Depending on the specific protocol area, the work may involve:
Implementing PCIe protocol features and state machines
Enhancing performance and scalability on emulation platforms
Developing debug, trace, and analysis capabilities
Supporting system‑level and software‑driven use cases via PCIe Virtual Bridge
Working with customers and field teams to resolve issues and deliver solutions related to PCIe and CXL
In this role, the engineer will be responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining PCIe/CXL AVIP/VB components as part of a larger protocol solution. The role is hands‑on and spans feature development, validation, and customer readiness.
Key responsibilities include:
Designing and implementing protocol functionality in PCIe AVIP and/or Virtual Bridge components
Developing and debugging BFMs, transactors, and associated software interfaces
Ensuring correctness, performance, and scalability in emulation and acceleration flows
Collaborating with cross‑functional teams
Participating in feature bring‑up, regression, and release activities
Supporting customer issues, reproducing problems, and delivering fixes
What you’ll need
BS with a minimum of 10 years of experience OR MS with a minimum of 7 years of experience OR PhD with a minimum of 5 years of experience
Strong fundamentals in digital design, computer architecture, and system‑level verification
Experience with hardware description languages (SystemVerilog/Verilog) and/or C/C++Understanding of standard interconnect or IO protocols (e.g., PCIe, CXL, NVMe)
Familiarity with emulation, acceleration, or hybrid verification flows is a strong plus
Good debugging skills using waveforms, logs, and protocol analyzers
Ability to work across hardware and software boundaries
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The AVIP (Accelerated Verification IP) and Virtual Bridge (VB) business is a core part of Cadence’s Virtual Emulation and System Verification portfolio, enabling high‑performance verification on Palladium and Protium platforms. The team builds high‑performance protocol solutions that enable customers to verify complex SoCs and systems at much higher speed and scale than traditional simulation.
Together, AVIP and VB are critical to customers building high‑performance compute, AI, networking, and memory‑coherent systems, where early software bring‑up, performance analysis, and protocol compliance are essential.
The AVIP / Virtual Bridge R&D team designs, implements, and productizes protocol solutions that span hardware, software, and system‑level verification. The team works across multiple layers, including:
Protocol architecture and feature definition
High‑performance transactor and BFM development
Hardware‑software co‑simulation and emulation flows
Debug, logging, performance profiling, and compliance features
Customer enablement, escalations, and interoperability validation
The team supports a broad portfolio of industry‑standard protocols, such as PCIe, CXL, Ethernet, USB, UCIe, and emerging interconnects, and works closely with emulation platform teams, controller/PHY teams, and customers.
This role will contribute directly to the development and enhancement of PCIe/CXL AVIP and/or PCIe/CXL Virtual Bridge products, focusing on protocol functionality, performance, and robustness. Depending on the specific protocol area, the work may involve:
Implementing PCIe protocol features and state machines
Enhancing performance and scalability on emulation platforms
Developing debug, trace, and analysis capabilities
Supporting system‑level and software‑driven use cases via PCIe Virtual Bridge
Working with customers and field teams to resolve issues and deliver solutions related to PCIe and CXL
In this role, the engineer will be responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining PCIe/CXL AVIP/VB components as part of a larger protocol solution. The role is hands‑on and spans feature development, validation, and customer readiness.
Key responsibilities include:
Designing and implementing protocol functionality in PCIe AVIP and/or Virtual Bridge components
Developing and debugging BFMs, transactors, and associated software interfaces
Ensuring correctness, performance, and scalability in emulation and acceleration flows
Collaborating with cross‑functional teams
Participating in feature bring‑up, regression, and release activities
Supporting customer issues, reproducing problems, and delivering fixes
What you’ll need
BS with a minimum of 10 years of experience OR MS with a minimum of 7 years of experience OR PhD with a minimum of 5 years of experience
Strong fundamentals in digital design, computer architecture, and system‑level verification
Experience with hardware description languages (SystemVerilog/Verilog) and/or C/C++Understanding of standard interconnect or IO protocols (e.g., PCIe, CXL, NVMe)
Familiarity with emulation, acceleration, or hybrid verification flows is a strong plus
Good debugging skills using waveforms, logs, and protocol analyzers
Ability to work across hardware and software boundaries
Show more Show less