Senior AI Software Lead for Hardware Verification & Automation

Cadence Design Systems; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 119,000 - 221,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive benefits

401(k) plan with employer match

Employee stock purchase plan

Medical, dental and vision plans

Job summary

Cadence Design Systems in San Jose, California, is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to design and develop AI-enabled software components for emulation and prototyping workflows. You will build LLM-based agents, RAG workflows, and automation services that enhance design bring-up, verification, debugging, and validation while aligning with secure AI practices.

The role requires strong Python skills, APIs, testing, and experience with Unix/Linux environments, distributed development, and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent experience; typically 4+ years with a Bachelor’s, 2+ years with a Master’s, or PhD-level preparation in related software development.
• Strong Python skills and software engineering fundamentals, including APIs, testing, debugging, maintainability, Unix/Linux environments, and distributed development workflows.
• Hands-on experience building AI-enabled applications, agentic workflows, or automation services using LLM APIs, open-source models, enterprise AI platforms, and orchestration tools such as LangGraph, LangChain, AutoGen, CrewAI, or similar frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop AI-enabled software components for emulation and prototyping workflows, balancing reliability, maintainability, security, latency, cost, and integration with existing product architecture.
• Build LLM-based agents, RAG workflows, and automation services to improve design bring-up, verification, debug, and validation while recommending product enhancements beyond defect fixes.
• Apply secure and responsible AI practices, including data protection, access control, prompt-injection awareness, safe tool use, auditability, and careful handling of sensitive design data.
• Create and execute testing, evaluation, and observability workflows for assigned AI product areas, covering regression tests, retrieval quality, model-output review, tracing, and failure analysis.
• Serve as a technical resource for peers and less-experienced engineers, collaborating with internal partners, senior individual contributors, and managers to deliver high-quality AI-enabled software.

Skills

Python

APIs

Testing

Unix/Linux

Distributed workflows

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

LangGraph

LangChain

AutoGen

CrewAI

Job description

Cadence Design Systems in San Jose, California, is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to design and develop AI-enabled software components for emulation and prototyping workflows. You will build LLM-based agents, RAG workflows, and automation services that enhance design bring-up, verification, debugging, and validation while aligning with secure AI practices.

The role requires strong Python skills, APIs, testing, and experience with Unix/Linux environments, distributed development, and