Formal Verification Research Scientist

Voltai; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Voltai in California (Palo Alto) seeks a senior formal verification researcher to develop new methods for formal proofs of design correctness. You will collaborate with RTL, verification, and ML teams to scale AI-hardware verification, prototype ideas on real RTL, and turn research into practical systems.

You will work closely with cross-functional teams to drive advances in formal methods and create scalable verification tools for complex hardware.

Qualifications

• Research experience in formal methods, theorem proving, model checking, or program analysis.
• JasperGold, VC Formal, or similar formal verification tools.
• Assertion-based verification (SVA).
• Model checking and property decomposition.
• Equivalence checking, abstraction refinement, and formal coverage.

Responsibilities

• Develop formal verification methods for proofs of design correctness.
• Collaborate with RTL, verification, and ML teams to build hybrid engines.
• Prototype research ideas, evaluate on real RTL designs, and translate methods into practical systems.

Skills

Formal verification

Theorem proving

Model checking

Program analysis

Tools

JasperGold

VC Formal

SVA

Job description

About Voltai

Voltai is developing world models, and agents to learn, evaluate, plan, experiment, and interact with the physical world. We are starting out with understanding and building hardware; electronics systems and semiconductors where AI can design and create beyond human cognitive limits.

About The Team

Backed by Silicon Valley’s top investors, Stanford University, and CEOs/Presidents of Google, AMD, Broadcom, Marvell, etc. We are a team of previous Stanford professors, SAIL researchers, Olympiad medalists (IPhO, IOI, etc.), CTOs of Synopsys & GlobalFoundries, Head of Sales & CRO of Cadence, former US Secretary of Defense, National Security Advisor, and Senior Foreign-Policy Advisor to four US presidents.

About This Role

In this role, you’ll develop new formal verification methods to enable formal proofs of design correctness using model checking, property verification, and equivalence analysis. You’ll collaborate closely with RTL, verification, and ML research teams to develop hybrid formal engines that reason about AI-generated hardware at scale. You’ll define formal properties, automate assertion synthesis, and build systems that verify at the speed of thought. You will prototype research ideas, evaluate them on real RTL designs, and work closely with RTL, ML, and verification teams to turn novel methods into practical systems.

You might thrive if you have 5+ years of experience in

• Research experience in formal methods, theorem proving, model checking, or program analysis
• JasperGold, VC Formal, or similar formal verification tools
• Assertion-based verification (SVA)
• Model checking and property decomposition
• Equivalence checking, abstraction refinement, and formal coverage