Emulation and FPGA Prototyping Engineer

Gsme; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Gsme is seeking an experienced Emulation and FPGA Prototyping Engineer to help startup customers migrate simulation‑based designs into emulation and FPGA prototyping hardware environments. You will work across RTL, testbench integration, and regression infrastructure to accelerate pre‑silicon bring‑up.

You will setup flows, debug RTL issues across simulation, emulation, and prototyping and collaborate with design, verification, software, and field teams to deliver scalable solutions for customer

Qualifications

• 5 or more years of hands‑on experience in emulation, FPGA prototyping, RTL design, design verification, or related pre‑silicon validation roles.
• Strong RTL debug skills and the ability to diagnose issues at the Verilog/SystemVerilog level.
• Hands‑on experience with Verilog and SystemVerilog; basic working knowledge of VHDL.
• Comfortable reading, modifying, and debugging basic C code used in test environments, transactors, firmware stubs, or validation flows.
• Proficiency with scripting and automation using languages such as Perl, Python, Tcl, shell scripting, or similar tools.
• Experience setting up or supporting compile flows, build systems, regression infrastructure, and testbench execution environments.
• Familiarity with simulation, emulation, and FPGA prototyping concepts, including compile, bring‑up, runtime execution, and debug workflows.
• Ability to work in Linux‑based development environments and use standard engineering tools such as revision control, makefiles, logs, waveform viewers, and issue tracking systems.
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and communication skills, especially in customer‑facing technical engagements.
• Ability to work independently in a fast‑paced startup customer environment while coordinating effectively with internal engineering teams.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical issues clearly to customers, peers, and cross‑functional stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively across design, verification, software, field engineering, and customer teams to drive technical closure.
• Strong ownership mindset, attention to detail, and ability to manage multiple customer issues, priorities, and deadlines in parallel.
• Comfortable working in ambiguous or fast‑changing environments and proactively identifying risks, dependencies, and next steps.

Responsibilities

• Work directly with startup customers to port simulation-based RTL designs into emulation and FPGA prototyping hardware platforms.
• Set up, customize, and maintain compilation flows for emulation and FPGA prototyping environments.
• Integrate and configure customer testbench environments for hardware‑assisted verification, acceleration, and prototyping use cases.
• Build, automate, and maintain job regression infrastructure to support repeatable compiles, test execution, triage, and reporting.
• Debug RTL‑level issues across simulation, emulation, and FPGA prototyping environments, including compile failures, functional mismatches, timing‑related issues, and bring‑up problems.
• Collaborate with design, verification, software, and customer engineering teams to identify root causes and drive issues to resolution.
• Create and maintain scripts, utilities, and automation frameworks to improve compile turnaround time, regression throughput, and debug efficiency.
• Support design bring‑up on emulation and FPGA prototyping platforms, including test execution, waveform/debug data analysis, and iterative design fixes.
• Document flows, setup procedures, known issues, and best practices for internal teams and customer users.
• Provide technical guidance to customers on emulation and FPGA prototyping methodology, design readiness, and debug strategies.

Skills

RTL design

RTL debugging

Verilog

SystemVerilog

VHDL (basic)

C programming

scripting

Perl

Python

Tcl

Shell scripting

Makefiles

revision control

waveform viewers

issue tracking systems

Education

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

Tools

Verilog tooling

SystemVerilog tooling

Linux tools

Job description

We are seeking an experienced Emulation and FPGA Prototyping Engineer to work closely with startup customers and help them successfully migrate simulation-based designs into emulation and FPGA prototyping hardware environments. This role requires strong hands‑on experience with RTL design and debug, compilation flows, testbench integration, automation, and regression infrastructure. The ideal candidate is comfortable working directly with customers, solving complex technical issues, and building scalable flows that accelerate pre‑silicon validation and hardware/software bring‑up.

Key Responsibilities

Work directly with startup customers to port simulation-based RTL designs into emulation and FPGA prototyping hardware platforms.

Set up, customize, and maintain compilation flows for emulation and FPGA prototyping environments.

Integrate and configure customer testbench environments for hardware‑assisted verification, acceleration, and prototyping use cases.

Build, automate, and maintain job regression infrastructure to support repeatable compiles, test execution, triage, and reporting.

Debug RTL‑level issues across simulation, emulation, and FPGA prototyping environments, including compile failures, functional mismatches, timing‑related issues, and bring‑up problems.

Collaborate with design, verification, software, and customer engineering teams to identify root causes and drive issues to resolution.

Create and maintain scripts, utilities, and automation frameworks to improve compile turnaround time, regression throughput, and debug efficiency.

Support design bring‑up on emulation and FPGA prototyping platforms, including test execution, waveform/debug data analysis, and iterative design fixes.

Document flows, setup procedures, known issues, and best practices for internal teams and customer users.

Provide technical guidance to customers on emulation and FPGA prototyping methodology, design readiness, and debug strategies.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

5 or more years of hands‑on experience in emulation, FPGA prototyping, RTL design, design verification, or related pre‑silicon validation roles.

Strong RTL debug skills and the ability to diagnose issues at the Verilog/SystemVerilog level.

Hands‑on experience with Verilog and SystemVerilog; basic working knowledge of VHDL.

Comfortable reading, modifying, and debugging basic C code used in test environments, transactors, firmware stubs, or validation flows.

Proficiency with scripting and automation using languages such as Perl, Python, Tcl, shell scripting, or similar tools.

Experience setting up or supporting compile flows, build systems, regression infrastructure, and testbench execution environments.

Familiarity with simulation, emulation, and FPGA prototyping concepts, including compile, bring‑up, runtime execution, and debug workflows.

Ability to work in Linux‑based development environments and use standard engineering tools such as revision control, makefiles, logs, waveform viewers, and issue tracking systems.

Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and communication skills, especially in customer‑facing technical engagements.

Ability to work independently in a fast‑paced startup customer environment while coordinating effectively with internal engineering teams.

Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical issues clearly to customers, peers, and cross‑functional stakeholders.

Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively across design, verification, software, field engineering, and customer teams to drive technical closure.

Strong ownership mindset, attention to detail, and ability to manage multiple customer issues, priorities, and deadlines in parallel.

Comfortable working in ambiguous or fast‑changing environments and proactively identifying risks, dependencies, and next steps.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with commercial emulation or FPGA prototyping platforms such as Palladium, Protium, Veloce, ZeBu, HAPS, or equivalent systems.

Experience with FPGA synthesis, partitioning, place‑and‑route, timing closure, or resource optimization.

Exposure to SoC design, IP integration, bus protocols, hardware/software co‑verification, or firmware bring‑up.

Experience developing monitors, transactors, adapters, or testbench components for emulation or prototyping environments.

Knowledge of regression management, continuous integration, job scheduling, or distributed compute infrastructure.

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a practical, hands‑on engineer who enjoys working at the intersection of RTL design, verification, automation, and customer enablement. They are comfortable taking an incomplete or simulation‑only customer environment, identifying what is needed to make it run on emulation or FPGA prototyping hardware, and building the flows and infrastructure required for repeatable success.

Soft Skills and Team Collaboration

This role requires a customer‑focused engineer who can build trusted technical relationships, communicate progress and blockers clearly, and work constructively with both internal teams and external customer stakeholders. The engineer should be able to listen carefully, ask clarifying questions, translate customer needs into actionable engineering tasks, and help teams stay aligned through bring‑up, debug, and regression closure.

Collaborates openly with cross‑functional teams and shares context, debug findings, and recommendations in a timely manner.

Communicates clearly with customers and internal stakeholders, including technical status, risks, tradeoffs, and next steps.

Shows patience and persistence when debugging complex issues across unfamiliar customer environments.

Demonstrates accountability for deliverables and follows through on commitments.

Contributes to a positive team culture by mentoring peers, documenting lessons learned, and promoting reusable solutions.