Software Engineering Director

Cadence; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 210,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

Cadence in Austin seeks a T6-level technical leader to guide the architecture, development, and execution of Conformal LEC and ECO technologies. This role will drive innovation in formal verification and ECO, lead complex technical initiatives, and help advance AI-powered capabilities across Conformal.

The successful candidate will combine deep technical expertise with broad product influence, cross-functional leadership, and strong customer engagement.

Qualifications

• PhD required in CS, EE, CE, or related field.
• Extensive EDA software and verification experience.
• Leadership of complex, high-impact initiatives.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration and customer engagement.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for Conformal LEC and ECO.
• Drive scalability, performance, and quality across flows.
• Lead AI-related verification innovations.
• Mentor engineers and shape long-term roadmap.
• Engage with strategic customers to translate needs.

Skills

C/C++ development

Formal verification

ECO/LEC knowledge

Algorithms

Large-scale software

Education

Ph.D. in CS/EE/CE

Tools

Linux/Unix

Python

Tcl

Shell

Perl

Job description

At Cadence, we hire and develop leaders and innovators who want to make an impact on the world of technology.

About The Team

The Conformal team is a diverse group of innovative, talented, and passionate engineers committed to delivering cutting-edge verification technologies and trusted solutions to leading semiconductor and high-technology customers around the world. We tackle challenging technical problems in an enjoyable, collaborative, and supportive environment.

Our team develops must-have IC design and verification solutions, including Conformal Logical Equivalence Checking (LEC), Conformal ECO (CECO), and Conformal Low Power (CLP), along with next-generation AI-powered verification technologies that help shape modern verification methodologies.

Role Summary

We are seeking a T6-level technical leader to guide the architecture, development, and execution of Conformal LEC and ECO technologies. This role will drive innovation in formal verification and ECO, lead complex technical initiatives, and help advance AI-powered capabilities across Conformal. The successful candidate will combine deep technical expertise with broad product influence, cross-functional leadership, and strong customer engagement.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for the Conformal LEC and ECO product areas, driving architecture, algorithm development, implementation, and product execution.
• Lead strategic initiatives to improve scalability, performance, capacity, quality, and debug effectiveness for complex IC verification and ECO flows.
• Drive AI-related innovation within Conformal, identifying and executing opportunities to improve verification productivity, debug efficiency, and user workflows.
• Solve complex technical and customer challenges, including critical escalations, methodology development, root-cause analysis, and delivery of robust software solutions.
• Collaborate with R&D, Product Engineering, Product Validation, Product Management, and customer-facing teams to define product direction and deliver differentiated customer value.
• Mentor senior engineers, provide architectural guidance, and promote engineering excellence and innovation across the broader organization.
• Influence the long-term roadmap and technical strategy for formal verification, equivalence checking, ECO, and AI-assisted verification technologies.
• Engage with strategic customers and industry partners to understand emerging requirements and translate them into product and technology innovations.

Required Qualifications

• Extensive EDA software development experience, with strong expertise in formal verification, logic equivalence checking, ECO, synthesis, or related digital design technologies.
• Strong C/C++ development experience and a deep understanding of data structures, algorithms, debugging, object-oriented design, and large-scale software architecture.
• Proven track record of leading complex, high-impact technical initiatives and delivering production-quality software from concept through deployment.
• Strong knowledge of digital design flows, logic synthesis, formal methods, RTL-to-netlist verification, and semiconductor design methodologies.
• Ability to provide cross-functional technical leadership and influence product direction across organizational boundaries.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, collaboration, and communication skills in a geographically distributed engineering environment.
• Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep experience with commercial EDA products for formal verification, LEC, ECO, low-power verification, synthesis, or adjacent technologies.
• Knowledge of AI/ML technologies and experience applying AI techniques to EDA, verification, debug, or engineering-productivity workflows.
• Experience with scripting languages such as Tcl, Python, Perl, or shell scripting.
• Experience working in Linux/Unix development environments and optimizing large-scale, performance-sensitive software systems.
• Experience partnering directly with leading semiconductor customers on complex technical requirements and escalations.

Success Profile

• Recognized as a technical leader in formal verification and ECO technologies.
• Drives innovation and technical direction beyond immediate project or team boundaries.
• Translates customer challenges and market needs into differentiated, scalable product capabilities.
• Accelerates the adoption of AI technologies across the Conformal product family.
• Develops technical talent and raises engineering quality across the organization.

Why Join Us

This is an opportunity to lead highly visible verification technologies used by leading semiconductor customers to solve complex IC design challenges. You will join a team that values innovation, technical excellence, collaboration, and a supportive work environment while helping shape the future of formal verification, ECO, and AI-driven verification methodology.

We’re doing work that matters. Help us solve what others can’t.