Silicon Emulation Engineer

Waymo's Compute Team is responsible for delivering the compute platform that runs the fully autonomous vehicle’s software stack. The team designs high‑performance custom silicon, develops system‑level compute architectures, and collaborates across teams to optimize hardware and software for maximum performance.

This role follows a hybrid work schedule and reports to a Silicon Engineering Lead.

• Collaborate with the Design, Verification, and Software teams to simulate future silicon designs and software on an emulation platform, targeting functional and performance validation and left‑shift of software development.
• Design, implement, and optimize emulation test benches, balancing performance and debugging capabilities based on user needs and hardware constraints.
• Write end‑to‑end synthesizable transactors to interact with emulated designs through software APIs and C‑DPI.
• Triage and root‑cause failures alongside emulation users, leveraging waveforms, software logging, and custom‑built emulation monitors.
• Assist with post‑silicon bring‑up, debug, and characterization.
• Build infrastructure to support the emulation user base, including tools for model build, regression, automation, continuous integration, data analysis, and training.

• BS degree in Computer Science / Electrical Engineering or related field and 5 years of silicon development experience.
• Experience with at least one major hardware emulation platform (Palladium, Zebu, Veloce, Protium, HAPS).
• High level of proficiency with one or more emulation approaches: virtual prototyping, testbench acceleration, hybrid emulation, in‑circuit emulation (speed bridge), QEMU, or Virtual Box.
• Experience with System Verilog and design verification methodologies.
• Programming and scripting (C++, Python, or TCL) for automation, test development, debug flows, and release process.
• Strong debug and problem‑solving ability across hardware and software.

• Experience with AXI/AMBA, PCIe, DRAM, and Ethernet interfaces.
• Performance and power analysis techniques.
• Experience with JTAG, DFT, UART, SPI, GPIO, and other test/low‑speed interfaces.
• Knowledge of advanced design verification methods (coverage, gate‑level simulation, assertions, and UVM).
• Post‑silicon debug software (e.g., Trace
  32, OpenOCD, TARMAC) and lab bench tools (analyzers, scopes, meters).
• Understanding of bare metal programming, embedded systems, Linux internals, operating systems, boot loaders, drivers, and firmware.

Salary Range: $175,000—$215,000 USD.

Waymo employees are also eligible to participate in Waymo’s discretionary annual bonus program, equity incentive plan, and generous Company benefits program, subject to eligibility requirements.