Senior SoC Engineer

ALTEN; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

ALTEN in San Francisco seeks a Senior SoC Engineer with strong ARM CPU subsystem experience to bridge Hardware and Firmware, driving firmware-driven validation, system bring-up and complex HW–FW debug.

You will partner with hardware and software teams on cross-layer debugging, pre-silicon validation and post-silicon bring-up, focusing on ARM Cortex-A/R subsystems and AMBA protocols.

Qualifications

• Strong ARM CPU subsystem experience with Cortex-A/R.
• Proficient in AMBA protocols AXI/ACE/CHI.
• Firmware-driven validation, bring-up and debugging boot flows.
• Ability to read C/C++ and correlate FW execution with HW behavior.

Responsibilities

• Act as the primary interface (POC) for the Firmware team.
• Debug firmware-driven issues, including boot failures, system hangs, and performance bottlenecks.
• Perform cross-layer debug (RTL/SoC/Firmware) and analyze logs, traces, and waveforms.
• Support pre-silicon validation and post-silicon bring-up.

Skills

ARM CPU subsystems

Cache coherency

GIC

Firmware debugging

Boot flow analysis

Tools

Synopsys VCS

Cadence Xcelium

Verdi

SimVision

Job description

Role Summary

We are seeking a Senior SoC Engineer with strong ARM CPU subsystem experience to serve as the technical bridge between Hardware and Firmware teams. This role focuses on firmware-driven validation, system bring-up, and complex HW–FW debug.

Core Responsibilities

• Act as the primary interface (POC) for the Firmware team.
• Debug firmware-driven issues, including boot failures, system hangs, and performance bottlenecks.
• Perform cross-layer debug (RTL/SoC/Firmware) and analyze logs, traces, and waveforms.
• Support pre-silicon validation and post-silicon bring-up.

Required Qualifications

• Architecture & SoC: Strong experience with ARM CPU subsystems (Cortex-A/R), cache hierarchy, coherency, MMU, and GIC.
• Protocols: Proficiency in AMBA protocols (AXI, ACE, CHI) and memory ordering.
• Firmware Debug: Hands-on experience in firmware-driven validation, bring-up, and debugging boot flows. Ability to read C/C++ and correlate FW execution with HW behavior.
• Tools: Experience with Synopsys VCS, Cadence Xcelium, Verdi, or SimVision.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with emulation (ZeBu/Palladium) or FPGA platforms.
• Exposure to ARM CoreSight, trace-based debug, and Linux/RTOS environments.
• Experience in multi-core, AI, or high-performance SoCs.