Senior Staff Engineer, GPU Design Verification (Formal Verification)

Samsung Electronics America; San Jose (CA); Remote; USD 198,000 - 297,000; Full time

Job summary

Samsung Electronics America, Inc. is seeking a Senior Staff GPU Design Verification Engineer – Formal Verification to shape block and subsystem level formal verification for next‑gen mobile GPUs.

You will define verification goals, write properties, and develop formal models while collaborating with architecture and RTL teams to ensure functional correctness and robust design. This role emphasizes leadership, innovation, and tough debugging across global teams.

Qualifications

• 10+ years with a related degree, or 8+ with a Master’s, or 6+ with a Ph.D.
• 8+ years in GPU/CPU or semiconductor design verification with a focus on formal verification.
• Strong understanding of computer architecture and graphics pipelines.
• Programming/scripting in Python, Perl, C/C++, or equivalent.
• Proficient in SystemVerilog and SystemVerilog Assertions (SVA).
• Expert in formal verification methodologies: property verification, data-path checking, model checking, coverage analysis.
• Hands-on experience with standard formal verification EDA tools and methods.
• Excellent debugging, analytical, and problem-solving skills; able to drive bottlenecks.
• Ability to think creatively and guide teams through design phases.

Responsibilities

• Define verification goals, properties, coverage, and sign-off criteria for GPU features.
• Architect and implement formal verification environments and models.
• Develop assertions and formal models; validate graphics and compute behavior.
• Collaborate with architecture and RTL teams to ensure verification aligns with design intent.
• Analyze formal failures, trace counterexamples, and drive root-cause resolution.
• Mentor engineers and foster ownership and innovation in verification practices.

Skills

Formal verification

GPU design

SystemVerilog

SVA

Python/C/C++

Computer architecture

Debugging

Mentoring

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s in CS/Engineering

Master’s in CS/Engineering

PhD in a related field

Tools

Industry-standard formal verification tools

Job description

Position Summary

Samsung, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, is founded on a simple philosophy – the endless pursuit of excellence will create a better world for all. At Samsung Austin Research and Development Center (SARC) and Advanced Computing Lab (ACL), we are building a center of excellence for Intellectual Property (IP) that is applied to high-performance computing devices (mobile, automotive, and other custom market segments) consumed by millions of people around the world.

Role and Responsibilities

As a Senior Staff GPU Design Verification Engineer – Formal Verification, you will help shape block and subsystem level formal verification for Samsung’s next-generation mobile GPU. In this high-impact individual contributor role, you will contribute to the formal verification strategy and hands‑on verification of GPU designs, ensuring functional correctness, power gating mechanisms, and architectural intent. You bring strong expertise in formal methods, GPU design verification, and a strong innovative mindset to explore, experiment, and adopt new formal verification approaches supporting concurrent development cycles. Leveraging your expertise in one or more technical areas, you will contribute to the block and subsystem level formal verification strategy and execution by defining verification goals, properties, coverage objectives, and sign‑off criteria for critical GPU features, including clock and power gating. You excel at architecting and implementing formal verification environments. You collaborate closely with architecture and RTL teams to develop assertions, properties, and formal models using industry‑standard formal tools and methodologies to validate complex graphics and compute behavior. You ensure functional and performance excellence by helping team apply formal techniques to exhaustively verify corner cases, state‑space behaviors, and safety properties that validate beyond simulation‑based verification. You help drive complex debug analysis and root‑cause resolution by analyzing formal failures, tracing counterexamples, and collaborating closely with design and architecture teams to ensure verification aligns with architectural intent and improve design robustness. You implement advanced formal verification techniques towards proof depth, bug hunting, complexity handling, bounded proof, failure triaging, cover scenarios and convergence analysis to achieve formal verification closure of GPU design features. You adhere to project execution and planning approaches using Confluence, JIRA and relevant techniques, and create/maintain documentation for formal verification test plans, convergence reports, complexity analysis reports and results. You inspire high performance by mentoring engineers, fostering a culture of ownership, accountability and innovation driven execution, and staying ahead of emerging GPU and formal verification methodologies.

Skills and Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science/Engineering, or 8+ years of experience with a Master’s Degree, or 6+ years of experience with a Ph.D.
• 8+ years of hands‑on experience with GPU, CPU, or advanced semiconductor design verification with a focus in formal verification.
• Strong understanding of computer architecture and graphics pipelines.
• Strong programming and scripting skills in Python, Perl, C/C++, or equivalent.
• Proficient in System Verilog and System Verilog Assertions (SVA) languages.
• Strong expertise in formal verification methodologies, including property verification, data path checking, model checking, register verification, connectivity checking and coverage analysis.
• Hands‑on experience with industry‑standard formal verification EDA tools and methodologies.
• Excellent debugging, analytical, and problem‑solving skills, with proven ability to identify bottlenecks, propose solutions.
• Infuse out‑of‑box‑thinking and guide teams through different phases of design implementation.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to navigate ambiguity and influence in a fast‑paced, global team environment.

Nice to Have:

• Knowledge of memory subsystem or coherent interconnects is a plus.
• Proficiency in constrained random verification using IEEE 1800TM Universal Verification Methodology (UVM).
• Experience with developing new formal verification methodologies, flows, or tooling.
• Exposure to low‑power design techniques and verification of power intent (e.g., UPF concepts).
• Demonstrated passion for innovation, ideation, and advancing the state of formal verification practices.

Our Team

The GPU Design Verification team at SARC/ACL owns verification coverage for Samsung’s current and next‑generation mobile GPUs. Our work spans across three areas: Graphic Core, Subsystem Verification, and Formal Verification. As a globally distributed team, we work closely with architecture, design, software, emulation, and system‑level partners to ensure GPU designs function effectively as a complete system. Our Xclipse GPU is the first mobile GPU with ray tracing technology that enables console‑level graphics for Samsung Galaxy smartphones. You will join a diverse, collaborative organization to work on concurrent annual development lifecycles and see your work delivered in real consumer technologies. Here you’ll help build what’s next, broaden your expertise, and solve impactful challenges in a supportive environment that values collaboration, continuous learning, and growth.

Total Rewards

At Samsung – SARC/ACL, base pay is one part of our total compensation package and is determined within a range. This provides the opportunity to progress as you grow and develop within a role. The base pay range for this role is between $198,200 and $297,200. Your actual base pay will depend on variables that may include your education skills, qualifications, experience, and work location. Samsung employees have access to benefits including: medical, dental, vision, life insurance, 401(k), onsite lunch, employee purchase program, tuition assistance (after 6 months), paid time off, wellness incentives, and many more. In addition, regular full‑time employees (salaried or hourly) are eligible for MBO bonus compensation, based on company, division, and individual performance. Additionally, this role might be eligible to participate in long term incentive plan and relocation. This is an exempt position, which is not eligible for overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Trade Secrets

By submitting an application, you agree not to disclose to Samsung or induce or encourage Samsung to use any confidential or proprietary information (including trade secrets) belonging to a current or former employer or other entity.

U.S. Export Control

This role may require access to information subject to U.S. export control laws. Applicants must be authorized to access such information or eligible for government authorization.

#ACL

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