Silicon Validation Engineer

MatX Inc.; Mountain View (CA); Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 600,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

4 weeks PTO (accrued)

12 company holidays

Up to 3 weeks remote work

Health insurance

Job summary

MatX Inc. is building a high-performance silicon platform for GenAI workloads.

We seek engineers to own silicon bring-up and validation from first power-on through production release, developing test plans for chip-level functionality, performance, and reliability. You will validate boot, power management, memory, and high-speed interfaces while collaborating with architecture, DV, emulation, firmware, and product teams.

Qualifications

• Hands-on silicon validation and post-silicon bring-up experience required.
• Experience validating complex SoCs or highly integrated silicon products.
• Strong understanding of digital hardware and SoC architecture.
• Ability to debug cross-functional failures to root cause.
• Experience with lab platforms and real silicon.
• Familiarity with firmware, embedded software, and drivers.

Responsibilities

• Own silicon bring-up and validation from first power-on to production readiness.
• Develop and execute chip-level validation plans for functionality, performance, and reliability.
• Validate boot, reset, initialization, power management, memory, and high-speed interfaces.
• Collaborate across DV, emulation, firmware, software, and product teams to improve coverage.
• Debug failures using logs, registers, traces, and lab equipment.
• Define observability, debug requirements, and improve validation automation.

Skills

Silicon validation

Hardware emulation

Top-level DV

Debug complex failures

Scripting (Python)

C/C++ debugging

Reading specifications

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in EE/CS

Tools

Cadence Palladium

SystemVerilog/UVM

Oscilloscopes/Logic analyzers

Waveform debugging tools

Job description

What MatX Is Building

MatX is on a mission to be the compute platform for AGI. We are developing vertically integrated full-stack solutions from silicon to systems including hardware and software to train and run the largest ML workloads for AGI. MatX is seeking silicon micro-architects and design engineers to join our team as we create best-in-class silicon for high-performance and sustainable GenAI. Successful candidates for these roles will be responsible for delivering performant and functionally accurate silicon for MatX products across compute, memory management. High-speed connectivity and other key technologies.

What You’ll Do Here

• Own silicon bring-up and validation from first power-on through feature validation and production readiness.
• Develop and execute validation plans for chip-level and SiP-level functionality, performance, reliability, and systembehavior.
• Validate boot, reset, initialization, power management, recovery, memory, interconnect, high-speed interfaces, andpackage-level functionality.
• Work across Top-level DV, Palladium emulation, lab validation, and package validation to improve coverage andcorrelation between environments.
• Debug complex failures using logs, registers, traces, waveforms, firmware output, and lab equipment.
• Analyze issues across RTL, firmware, software, board, package, and silicon boundaries.
• Collaborate with architecture, design, DV, emulation, firmware, software, and product engineering teams.
• Define observability and debug requirements and improve validation automation, execution, and failure triage.

Who You Are

• Strong hands-on experience in silicon validation, post-silicon bring-up, hardware emulation, Top-level DV, or a relatedfield.
• Experience validating complex SoCs, accelerators, or highly integrated silicon products.
• Strong understanding of digital hardware, SoC architecture, and hardware-firmware interaction.
• Proven ability to debug complex cross-functional failures and drive them to root cause.
• Experience working with real silicon and lab platforms.
• Familiarity with firmware, embedded software, drivers, and low-level hardware access.
• Ability to read and understand C or C++ code for debug purposes.
• Python or similar scripting experience.
• Ability to read specifications, register descriptions, validation plans, and relevant RTL.
• Strong ownership, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Bonus Points If You Have

• Experience with both pre-silicon and post-silicon validation.
• Experience with Cadence Palladium.
• Experience with SystemVerilog, UVM, assertions, coverage, or waveform debug.
• Experience bringing up first silicon.
• Experience with HBM, DDR, PCIe, CXL, Ethernet, die-to-die interfaces, or advanced packaging.
• Familiarity with JTAG, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, or protocol analyzers.

Compensation

The US base salary for this full-time position is determined based on a variety of factors including role, experience, location, job related skills, and relevant education and training. Career length is only a guideline for compensation.

• Early Career - $160,000 - $275,000 + equity
• Mid Career - $175,000 - $400,000 + equity
• Senior Career - $250,000 - $600,000 + equity

What We Offer

• Time off: 4 weeks PTO (accrued) + 12 company Holidays + up to 3 weeks remote work
• Health: Company-subsidized Medical (Kaiser or Anthem) for employees & dependents, Guardian Dental and Vision insurances for employee & dependents, and life insurance (employee only), plus HSA and FSA offerings via Lively. See attached benefits 1-pager and full benefits guide for more info on benefits.
• Financial Wellbeing: Choose from Roth IRA/ 401K (or both) retirement plans with up to 5% company contribution to 401K (even if you don't contribute). Also, 100% company-paid life insurance (up to $300K) and long-term disability insurances.
• Professional Development: $1500 Professional Development Budget (per year)
• Team Meals: MatX provides onsite team lunch & dinner Monday - Friday, with your choice of ordering via WeBox, Specialty’s or via our reimbursement system
• Commute on Us: Commute on our company Uber account, or reimburse your train rides. Either way, we pay 100% for your daily commute
• MatX E[x]tras: $50/mo to use on the perk you value most
• Cell & Internet Reimbursement: $35/mo for cellular and $40/mo for wifi
• Mental Wellbeing: 100% paid mental health benefit via SpringHealth and Guardian EAP.
• Support to Parents: Up to 12 weeks paid parental leave regardless of path to parenthood, 10 weeks pregnancy disability leave, flexible return-to-work hours, and Benepass reproductive health & parental benefit.
• AI Resources: Up to $20K/month plus a dedicated internal AI Tooling Team to support your productivity

As part of our dedication to the diversity of our team and our focus on creating an inviting and inclusive work experience, MatX is committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and will not discriminate against an applicant or employee on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital/domestic partner status, military and veteran status, genetic information or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state or local laws, regulations or ordinances.

All candidates must be authorized to work in the United States and work from our offices in Mountain View Tuesdays-Thursdays.

This position requires access to information that is subject to U.S. export controls. This offer of employment is contingent upon the applicants capacity to perform job functions in compliance with U.S. export control laws without obtaining a license from U.S. export control authorities.