Senior ASIC Engineer - Post Silicon Validation

Cisco • San Jose, CA

1d

About The Position

The Silicon One team creates innovative hardware platforms central to the AI era, powering Cisco’s core Switching, Routing, and Wireless products for organizations globally. Our innovations in silicon, optics, and hardware platforms are shaping the technology industry. We're a global team of creative experts, bringing our unique backgrounds and bold ideas to push boundaries and help each other grow. Because full product development—from design to qualification to production—is within our team, we’re able to think differently, experiment more, and work quickly. Join us to power the future of the digital world. In this role as a Post-Silicon Validation Engineer, you will be responsible for planning and setting up Silicon Bring-up infrastructure, including system boot, initialization, and Power-On of ASICs. You will work closely with design, verification, and board teams to root-cause and resolve functional and electrical issues. You will prepare the Validation Test plan and execute functional and performance testing targeting IP, Subsystem, and full-chip stress testing and corner case analysis. You will develop and extend post-silicon validation infrastructure, automation, and test suites, including implementing efficient result capture, analysis, and regression frameworks. You will apply expertise with lab instrumentation (oscilloscopes, analyzers, traffic generators) as part of validation and characterization. You will work closely with RTL, DFT, ATE, firmware, and system architecture teams to ensure a smooth transition from pre-silicon verification to post-silicon validation. You will provide critical feedback on test escapes, yield issues, and silicon errata, influencing silicon revisions and firmware/driver workarounds.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical or Computer Engineering and 7+ years experience; a Master's degree with 4+ years of experience; or a PhD with 1+ years of experience.
• Prior experience in post-silicon validation, bring-up, and debug with ASICs.
• Prior experience in early silicon bring-up, debug, and validation.
• Prior experience bringing up standard peripheral interfaces (I2C, SPI, JTAG) and protocols (PCIe, Ethernet).
• Prior experience working with firmware, bootloaders, and low-level silicon debug environments; fluency in C, Python, and scripting for validation automation.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with memory subsystems (HBM, DDR).
• Electrical and thermal performance characterization activities.
• System Verilog/UVM-based verification and emulation-based verification.

Responsibilities

• Planning and setting up Silicon Bring-up infrastructure, including system boot, initialization, and Power-On of ASICs.
• Working closely with design, verification, and board teams to root-cause and resolve functional and electrical issues.
• Preparing the Validation Test plan and executing functional and performance testing targeting IP, Subsystem, and full-chip stress testing and corner case analysis.
• Developing and extending post-silicon validation infrastructure, automation, and test suites, including implementing efficient result capture, analysis, and regression frameworks.
• Applying expertise with lab instrumentation (oscilloscopes, analyzers, traffic generators) as part of validation and characterization.
• Working closely with RTL, DFT, ATE, firmware, and system architecture teams to ensure a smooth transition from pre-silicon verification to post-silicon validation.
• Providing critical feedback on test escapes, yield issues, and silicon errata, influencing silicon revisions and firmware/driver workarounds.

Benefits

• medical, dental and vision insurance
• a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution
• paid parental leave
• short and long-term disability coverage
• basic life insurance
• 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
• 1 paid day off for employee’s birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco
• 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees (non-exempt)
• flexible vacation time off program (exempt)
• 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to the next
• Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members
• Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
• annual bonuses
• performance-based incentive pay

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior