Senior Design Verification Engineer

Astera Labs; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 149,000 - 165,000; Full time

Job summary

Astera Labs in San Jose, CA, is seeking a Senior Design Verification Engineer to lead robust verification for next‑gen connectivity silicon supporting PCIe Gen6/Gen7, UALink, and UCI.

You will work with RTL, architecture, firmware, and post‑silicon teams to plan testbenches, develop coverage models, and drive silicon readiness through from planning to regression.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 2–5 years of experience in design verification for complex ASICs or SoCs.
• Hands‑on experience with SystemVerilog and UVM‑based verification environments.

Responsibilities

• Verification Strategy and Planning
• Develop block- and subsystem‑level verification plans from specifications, architecture, and design requirements.
• Define test scenarios, coverage models, checkers, assertions, and scoreboards for complex switching functionality.
• Review designs and verification plans with architecture and RTL teams to identify corner cases early.
• Environment Development and Execution
• Build and enhance reusable UVM‑based SystemVerilog testbenches, agents, sequences, monitors, and reference models.
• Create directed, constrained‑random, and power‑on‑reset scenarios spanning PCIe Gen 6/Gen 7, UALink, and UCI behavior.
• Debug simulation failures using waveform analysis, logs, assertions, and cross‑functional collaboration.
• Coverage, Quality, and Silicon Readiness
• Drive functional and code coverage analysis, identify verification gaps, and close coverage to agreed milestones.
• Develop regression strategies and automation to improve test quality, turnaround time, and failure triage.
• Partner with design and post‑silicon teams on issue isolation, root‑cause analysis, and silicon bring‑up readiness.

Skills

SystemVerilog

UVM

Testbenches

Verification plans

Debugging

Communication

Collaboration

Python

Perl

Tcl

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field

Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field

Tools

Python

Perl

Tcl

Job description

Astera Labs (NASDAQ: ALAB) provides rack-scale AI infrastructure through purpose-built connectivity solutions. By collaborating with hyperscalers and ecosystem partners, Astera Labs enables organizations to unlock the full potential of modern AI. Astera Labs’ Intelligent Connectivity Platform integrates CXL®, Ethernet, NVLink, PCIe®, and UALink™ semiconductor-based technologies with the company’s COSMOS software suite to unify diverse components into cohesive, flexible systems that deliver end-to‑to‑end scale‑up, and scale‑out connectivity. The company’s custom connectivity solutions business complements its standards‑based portfolio, enabling customers to deploy tailored architectures to meet their unique infrastructure requirements. Discover more at www.asteralabs.com.

Role Overview

As a Senior Design Verification Engineer, you will help define and deliver robust verification for next-generation connectivity silicon that enables rack‑scale AI infrastructure. You will partner closely with RTL, architecture, firmware, and post‑silicon teams to build verification strategies that prove complex switching behavior across high‑bandwidth protocols and demanding system environments.
This role offers the opportunity to own meaningful verification challenges within CCE2, from planning and testbench architecture through coverage closure and silicon learning. You will contribute to Astera Labs’ hyper‑growth mission by helping deliver highly reliable PCIe and UALink connectivity products that keep AI accelerators, memory, and compute resources operating at scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Verification Strategy and Planning
• Develop block- and subsystem‑level verification plans from specifications, architecture, and design requirements.
• Define test scenarios, coverage models, checkers, assertions, and scoreboards for complex switching functionality.
• Review designs and verification plans with architecture and RTL teams to identify corner cases early.
• Environment Development and Execution
• Build and enhance reusable UVM‑based SystemVerilog testbenches, agents, sequences, monitors, and reference models.
• Create directed, constrained‑random, and power‑on‑reset scenarios spanning PCIe Gen 6/Gen 7, UALink, and UCI behavior.
• Debug simulation failures using waveform analysis, logs, assertions, and cross‑functional collaboration.
• Coverage, Quality, and Silicon Readiness
• Drive functional and code coverage analysis, identify verification gaps, and close coverage to agreed milestones.
• Develop regression strategies and automation to improve test quality, turnaround time, and failure triage.
• Partner with design and post‑silicon teams on issue isolation, root‑cause analysis, and silicon bring‑up readiness.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 2–5 years of experience in design verification for complex ASICs or SoCs.
• Hands‑on experience with SystemVerilog and UVM‑based verification environments.
• Experience developing verification plans, testbenches, assertions, scoreboards, and functional coverage models.
• Familiarity with simulation, waveform‑debug, regression, and coverage tools.
• Strong debugging, communication, and collaboration skills in a fast‑paced product development environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience verifying PCIe, UALink, UCI, or other high‑speed connectivity and switching protocols.
• Knowledge of protocol checkers, formal verification, emulation, or hardware acceleration methodologies.
• Experience with Python, Perl, or Tcl for verification automation and regression infrastructure.
• Understanding of AI or data‑center system architectures, including accelerator, memory, and fabric connectivity.

Salary range is $148,500 to $165,000 depending on experience, level, and business need. This role may be eligible for discretionary bonus, incentives and benefits.
We know that creativity and innovation happen more often when teams include diverse ideas, backgrounds, and experiences, and we actively encourage everyone with relevant experience to apply, including people of color, LGBTQ+ and non‑binary people, veterans, parents, and individuals with disabilities.