Senior Formal Verification Engineer

Waymo; California (MO); Hybrid; USD 204,000 - 259,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary annual bonus program

Equity incentive plan

Generous Company benefits

Job summary

Waymo is seeking a Silicon Engineer focused on formal verification to drive strategy, build scalable verification environments, and mentor engineers on advanced formal methods. The role emphasizes cross‑functional collaboration across design, architecture, and software, with opportunities to influence automotive compute platforms.

Applicants should have 5+ years of hands-on formal verification on shipping silicon, strong SV, C++/Python skills, and a track record in debugging complex designs.

Qualifications

• BS/MS/PhD in CS/EE or related field, combined with 5+ years of hands-on formal verification experience on shipping silicon products.
• Deep, expert-level proficiency with at least one major commercial formal verification platform (e.g., Cadence JasperGold, Synopsys VC Formal, Mentor Questa Formal)
• High level language proficiency in C++ and/or Python
• Ability to model complex designs in SystemVerilog and advanced SystemVerilog Assertions, including writing complex cut-points and environment models for effective formal proof convergence
• Proven track record in applying advanced formal debug techniques for problem decomposition (e.g., clock domain crossings, abstractions, assume-guarantee reasoning)
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to influence cross‑functional teams (Design, Architecture, Software) and drive technical alignment

Responsibilities

• Define and drive formal verification strategy for first-pass silicon success, signing off on complex IP/SoC designs using advanced formal techniques.
• Architect robust FV environments with reusable testbenches, flows, and high-coverage SVA suites.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to designers and verification engineers.
• Translate system/IP specs into comprehensive formal verification test plans.
• Maintain and enhance CI, regression flows, and dashboards for FV status and sign-off metrics.
• Apply advanced formal debug methods to tackle challenging verification problems.

Skills

C++ / Python

SystemVerilog & SVAs

Formal verification tools

Cross-functional communication

Formal debug techniques

Education

BS/MS/PhD in CS/EE or related

Tools

Cadence JasperGold

Synopsys VC Formal

Mentor Questa Formal

Job description

Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with the mission to be the world\'s most trusted driver. Since its start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009, Waymo has focused on building the Waymo Driver- The World's Most Experienced Driver™ to improve access to mobility while saving thousands of lives now lost to traffic crashes. The Waymo Driver powers Waymo's fully autonomous ride-hail service and can also be applied to a range of vehicle platforms and product use cases. The Waymo Driver has provided over ten million rider-only trips, enabled by its experience autonomously driving over 100 million miles on public roads and tens of billions in simulation across 15+ U.S. states.

Waymo's Compute Team is tasked with a critical and exciting mission: We deliver the compute platform responsible for running the fully autonomous vehicle’s software stack. To achieve our mission, we architect and create high-performance custom silicon; we develop system-level compute architectures that push the boundaries of performance, power, and latency; and we collaborate closely with many other teammates to ensure we design and optimize hardware and software for maximum performance. We are a multidisciplinary team seeking curious and talented teammates to work on one of the world’s highest performance automotive compute platforms.

This role follows a hybrid work schedule and you will report to a Silicon Engineering Lead.

You will:

• Define and drive formal strategy for first-pass silicon success. Own the formal verification sign-off approach across complex IP and SoC designs, utilizing advanced formal techniques (e.g., Bounded Model Checking, Datapath Validation, Connectivity, Sequential LEC, etc.)

• Architect robust and scalable FV environments. Develop and deploy reusable formal testbenches, methodology flows, and high-coverage SVA assertion suites for systemic deployment across multiple design blocks and projects

• Technical leadership & mentorship. Serve as the team's formal Subject Matter Expert, training and guiding logic designers and verification engineers to effectively incorporate formal methods into their workflows

• Strategic planning and test plan execution. Collaborate with Architecture and Design teams to translate complex system and IP specifications into comprehensive formal verification test plans

• Drive FV Infrastructure & Reporting. Maintain and enhance continuous integration, regression flows, and dashboarding to provide clear, actionable formal verification status and sign-off metrics to leadership

• Advanced bug-hunting and debugging. Apply state-of-the-art formal techniques (e.g., assume-guarantee, abstractions, reductions) to tackle and efficiently decompose the most challenging, intractable verification problems

You have:

• BS/MS/PhD in CS/EE or related field, combined with 5+ years of hands-on formal verification experience on shipping silicon products

• Deep, expert-level proficiency with at least one major commercial formal verification platform (e.g., Cadence JasperGold, Synopsys VC Formal, Mentor Questa Formal)

• High level language proficiency in C++ and/or Python

• Ability to model complex designs in SystemVerilog and advanced SystemVerilog Assertions, including writing complex cut-points and environment models for effective formal proof convergence

• Proven track record in applying advanced formal debug techniques for problem decomposition (e.g., clock domain crossings, abstractions, assume-guarantee reasoning)

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to influence cross‑functional teams (Design, Architecture, Software) and drive technical alignment

We prefer:

• Informed of latest developments in formal verification research and industry practice, identify opportunities for Waymo's silicon development process

• Experience in formally proving correctness of arithmetic units such as floating point adders and multipliers

• Knowledge/experience working with NOCs and networking topologies, protocols (Eg. AXI/AMBA)

• Understand basic principles of cache coherency

• Experience with high-performance designs

The expected base salary range for this full-time position across US locations is listed below. Actual starting pay will be based on job-related factors, including exact work location, experience, relevant training and education, and skill level. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the role location or, if the role can be performed remote, the specific salary range for your preferred location, during the hiring process.

Waymo employees are also eligible to participate in Waymo's discretionary annual bonus program, equity incentive plan, and generous Company benefits program, subject to eligibility requirements.

Salary Range

$204,000 - $259,000 USD