Engineer, PCIe Validation

Tenstorrent; British Columbia; On-site; CAD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Highly competitive compensation package

Benefits and equal opportunity employer

Job summary

A technology company in British Columbia seeks a Senior PCIe Validation Engineer to validate next-generation PCIe interfaces while collaborating closely with firmware teams. This role includes developing and executing test plans, debugging complex issues, and ensuring robust performance across hardware and software layers. The desired candidate should possess a degree in Electrical or Computer Engineering and have strong knowledge of PCIe protocols. Competitive compensation and benefits package offered.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's in Electrical or Computer Engineering.
• Experience in high-speed interface validation with a focus on PCIe.
• Strong programming skills in C/C++ for embedded firmware development.
• Exposure to PCIe security features and CI/CD for validation pipelines

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute test plans for PCIe interfaces.
• Collaborate with firmware teams for PCIe controller validation.
• Triage and resolve issues across hardware, firmware, and software.
• Triage and resolve complex issues across hardware, firmware, and software using tools like ITP/JTAG, BIOS Setup, and pre-boot environments.
• Validate interoperability with PCIe devices and platforms, tuning configuration parameters and participating in PCI-SIG compliance workshops.

Skills

PCIe protocol expertise

Firmware debugging

C/C++ programming

High-speed interfaces

Python scripting

System validation

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s in Electrical or Computer Engineering

Tools

ITP/JTAG

Oscilloscopes

UEFI/BIOS

Job description

Tenstorrent is leading the industry on cutting-edge AI technology, revolutionizing performance expectations, ease of use, and cost efficiency. With AI redefining the computing paradigm, solutions must evolve to unify innovations in software models, compilers, platforms, networking, and semiconductors. Our diverse team of technologists have developed a high performance RISC-V CPU from scratch, and share a passion for AI and a deep desire to build the best AI platform possible. We value collaboration, curiosity, and a commitment to solving hard problems. We are growing our team and looking for contributors of all seniorities.

At Tenstorrent, we are building cutting-edge AI/ML compute platforms, and high-speed interface validation is crucial to our success. We are looking for a Senior PCIe Validation Engineer with Firmware Expertise to play a key role in validating next gen PCIe interfaces, ensuring robust performance and seamless integration across hardware, firmware, and software layers.

In this role, you will bridge the gap between hardware validation and low-level firmware integration, working to validate, debug, and optimize PCIe interfaces at both the controller and PHY levels, from pre-silicon through to production.

This role is on‑site, based out of Toronto, Canada.

We welcome candidates at various experience levels for this role. During the interview process, candidates will be assessed for the appropriate level, and offers will align with that level, which may differ from the one in this posting.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute comprehensive test plans for next-generation PCIe interfaces, validating PHY/PCS behavior, LTSSM states, equalization, lane margining, and signal integrity. Leverage lab equipment (e.g., oscilloscopes, BERTs, protocol analyzers) for root cause analysis and ensure compliance with PCI‑SIG specifications.
• Collaborate with firmware teams to integrate and validate PCIe controller and PHY initialization, including SerDes bring‑up, training sequences, and power management.
• Develop and debug firmware APIs for error handling, performance monitoring, and recovery flows.
• Triage and resolve complex issues across hardware, firmware, and software layers using tools such as ITP/JTAG, Scan Chain, and UEFI Shell. Drive root‑cause analysis for link failures, power state transitions, and system enumeration errors.
• Validate interoperability with a broad range of PCIe devices and platforms, tuning configuration parameters like bifurcation and payload size. Participate in PCI‑SIG compliance workshops to ensure alignment with industry standards.

Experience & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s in Electrical or Computer Engineering with experience in high‑speed interface validation, focusing on PCIe and firmware‑level debugging
• Strong knowledge of PCIe protocol (TLPs, DLLPs, PHY behavior, ECNs)
• Experience in silicon bring‑up, pre‑boot firmware development, or UEFI/BIOS‑level configuration for PCIe
• Expertise in PCIe power management, ASPM, and BIOS‑level link tuning
• Experience debugging low‑level hardware‑firmware interactions with tools like ITP, JTAG, BIOS Setup, Serial Debug, and pre‑boot environments
• Strong programming skills in C/C++ for embedded firmware development
• Experience with multi‑die chiplets and chip‑to‑chip interconnects in PCIe systems
• Exposure to validation and debugging of non‑PCIe interfaces (e.g., Ethernet, memory interfaces)
• Familiarity with automation frameworks and continuous integration for validation pipelines
• Background in working with PCIe security features (e.g., secure boot, link encryption)
• Exposure to CI/CD pipelines and automation infrastructures.
• Exposure to low level FW development for RISC‑V

Tenstorrent offers a highly competitive compensation package and benefits, and we are an equal opportunity employer.

Due to U.S. Export Control laws and regulations, Tenstorrent is required to ensure compliance with licensing regulations when transferring technology to nationals of certain countries that have been licensing conditions set by the U.S. government.

As this position will have direct and/or indirect access to information, systems, or technologies that are subject to U.S. Export Control laws and regulations, please note that citizenship/permanent residency, asylee and refugee information and supporting documentation will be required and considered as a condition of employment.

If a U.S. export license is required, employment will not begin until a license with acceptable conditions is granted by the U.S. government. If a U.S. export license with acceptable conditions is not granted by the U.S. government, then the offer of employment will be rescinded.