HLD Validation Technical Lead

754 Altera Semiconductor Technology (M) Sdn. Bhd.; George Town; On-site; MYR 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Altera is seeking a senior engineer to research, design, develop, and optimize software tools enabling FPGA use. You will work on flows, compilers, models, runtimes, and firmware tightly coupled to FPGA silicon and boards.

The role requires deep FPGA hardware and tool-flow knowledge, leadership experience, and strong scripting skills for automation, with responsibilities including responding to customer requests and coordinating validation efforts.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.
• 8+ years of FPGA development, software-tool verification, or validation, including hands-on FPGA design flows.
• 3+ years of technical leadership or project leadership guiding engineers.

Responsibilities

• Designs, develops, and optimizes software tools for FPGA use including flows, compilers, models, runtimes, and firmware.
• Responds to customer requests or events as they occur during development and validation activities.

Skills

FPGA expertise

Technical leadership

Scripting and automation

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in EE/CE/CS/SE

Tools

Quartus Prime

Verilog

VHDL

Job description

Job Details

Researches, designs, develops, and optimizes software tools that enable the use of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). Develops and optimizes compilers, flows, assemblers, models, tools, runtimes, and/or firmwares that are closely coupled to FPGA silicon, IP, and boards, while leveraging strong knowledge of FPGA hardware, logic design, board design, semiconductor devices, and chip layout. Designs, develops, and optimizes software abstractions and frameworks for acceleration with the FPGA for domains such as deep learning, DSP algorithms, or data analytics. Responds to customer/client requests or events as they occur.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience in FPGA development, software-tool verification, or validation, including substantial hands-on work with FPGA design flows.
• 3+ years of technical leadership, project leadership, or equivalent experience guiding engineers and coordinating complex validation work.
• Strong understanding of FPGA architectures and tool flows from design entry through compilation, simulation, implementation, timing analysis, and hardware execution.
• Experience developing validation strategies, test plans, regression suites, defect reports, and release-quality assessments for complex software tools.
• Proficiency with scripting and automation, such as Python, Perl, Tcl, or shell, and experience with CI/CD or automated regression infrastructure.
• Demonstrated ability to debug cross-layer software and FPGA issues, analyze results, make risk-based recommendations, and communicate findings to technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Strong collaboration, mentoring, and written and verbal communication skills in a cross-functional environment.

Preferred qualifications

• Direct experience using or validating at least one HLD tool category: high-level synthesis, DSP-oriented design, AI-oriented FPGA tools, compiler flows, or design-generation tools.
• Experience with FPGA AI Suite, HLS Compiler, or DSP Builder is especially valuable.
• Hands-on experience with Altera/Intel Quartus Prime or comparable FPGA development tools from other vendors.
• Familiarity with Verilog or VHDL; simulation, waveform, synthesis, place-and-route, and timing-analysis tools.
• Experience with FPGA development kits, board-level testing, SoC integration, PCIe or embedded flows, or hardware/software bring-up.
• Experience with Linux and Windows test environments, containers, virtual machines, and shared lab infrastructure.
• Experience with performance characterization, AI model benchmarking, test-result analysis, and automated reporting.
• Experience with UI automation using Playwright, Selenium, or comparable tools where applicable to the supported product flows.

Success measures

• Validation coverage and release criteria remain aligned with HLD product requirements, customer workflows, and release commitments.
• Critical defects and coverage gaps are identified early, communicated with clear impact, and resolved or given an explicit release disposition.
• Regressions, environments, and reports are reliable, maintainable, and usable by other engineers without dependence on a single individual.
• Automation improves repeatability, useful coverage, triage speed, and reporting consistency while reducing avoidable manual effort.
• Stakeholders receive timely, evidence-based assessments of validation status and release risk.
• Validation engineers receive effective technical guidance and grow in ownership of their work.

Job Type and Locations

Job Type: Regular Shift: Shift 1 (Malaysia) Primary Location: Penang 15, Penang, Malaysia Additional Locations: Austin, Texas, United States

Posting Statement

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, religious creed, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, military and veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by local law, regulation, or ordinance.

About Altera

Altera: Accelerating Innovators Altera provides leadership programmable solutions that are easy-to-use and deploy in applications from cloud to edge, offering limitless AI possibilities. Our end-to-end broad portfolio of products including FPGAs, CPLDs, Intellectual Property, development tools, System on Modules, SmartNICs and IPUs provide the flexibility to accelerate innovation. Altera is helping to shape the future through pioneering innovation that unlocks extraordinary possibilities for everyone on the planet.