Systems Verification & Concurrent Kernel Architecture Research Intern

nio.com; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 52,348 - 63,369; Full time

Job summary

A leading smart electric vehicle company is seeking an intern to tackle challenging problems at the intersection of low-level systems and formal methods. This internship focuses on automating formal proofs for concurrent kernel primitives and involves deep technical work in C programming, memory models, and automated verification tools. Ideal candidates should possess a strong understanding of hardware and software interactions, along with enthusiasm for tackling complex engineering challenges. This role offers a competitive salary range of $38.00 - $46.00 per hour.

Qualifications

• Relevant research projects and publications in a related field.
• Ability to reason about memory alignment and hardware interrupts.
• Ability to model software as a discrete state-machine.

Responsibilities

• Formalize locking protocols to mathematically prove the absence of deadlocks.
• Apply Bounded Model Checking to C source code for data races and pointer safety.
• Verify placement of memory barriers on modern CPUs.

Skills

Proficiency in C

Understanding of L1/L2 cache coherency

Persistence in problem-solving

Familiarity with ARMv8 assembly

Education

Currently pursuing or completed a PhD or Master's degree

Tools

SMT-based tools

TLA+/Spin

ESBMC/CBMC

Job description

****JOB DESCRIPTION******About NIO**NIO is a pioneer and a leading company in the premium smart electric vehicle market. Founded in November 2014, NIO’s mission is to shape a joyful lifestyle. NIO aims to build a community starting with smart electric vehicles to share joy and grow together with users.NIO designs, develops, jointly manufactures and sells premium smart electric vehicles, driving innovations in next-generation technologies in autonomous driving, digital technologies, electric powertrains and batteries. NIO differentiates itself through its continuous technological breakthroughs and innovations, such as its industry-leading battery swapping technologies, Battery as a Service, or BaaS, as well as its proprietary autonomous driving technologies and Autonomous Driving as a Service, or ADaaS.NIO’s product portfolio consists of the ES8, a six-seater smart electric flagship SUV, the ES7 (or the EL7), a mid-large five-seater smart electric SUV, the ES6, a five-seater all-round smart electric SUV, the EC7, a five-seater smart electric flagship coupe SUV, the EC6, a five-seater smart electric coupe SUV, the ET7, a smart electric flagship sedan, and the ET5, a mid-size smart electric sedan.### The MissionTransitioning a kernel from a monolithic "Big Kernel Lock" to **fine-grained concurrency** is a high-risk engineering challenge. Traditional testing is mathematically incapable of catching the non-deterministic "Heisenbugs" inherent in parallel execution. This internship is a 3-month intensive study to determine the **practical limits** of using automated formal methods to guarantee the safety of concurrent kernel primitives.### ### The Challenge: The "Logic-to-Silicon" GapYou will navigate the intersection of low-level systems grit and formal rigor to bridge three volatile domains:**Concurrency:** Managing state-space explosion when multiple cores access shared kernel objects simultaneously.**Memory Models:** Ensuring locks respect the weak consistency and instruction reordering of **ARMv8/****RISC-V** hardware.**Automated Proof:** Using SMT-based tools to achieve high-assurance "push-button" verification without the years-long overhead of manual theorem proving.### ### Roles and Responsibilities* **Design Logic (TLA+/Spin):** Formalize locking protocols to mathematically prove the absence of deadlocks and circular waits.* **Implementation** **Audit** **(****ESBMC****/****CBMC****):** Apply Bounded Model Checking to C source code to exhaustively scan for data races, pointer safety, and invariant violations.* **Hardware** **Mapping:** Verify the placement of memory barriers to prevent hardware-level synchronization failure on modern CPUs.* **AI-Augmented Scaling:** Leverage LLMs as an "Inference Engine" to synthesize formal invariants and environment harnesses, then critically audit the results for logical soundness.### ### Qualifications* Currently pursuing or completed a PhD or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related field with relevant research projects and publications.* **Low-Level Systems Mastery:** Deep proficiency in **C**; ability to reason about memory alignment, volatile keywords, and hardware interrupts. You should be comfortable reading **ARMv8** assembly to ensure compiler optimizations haven't compromised synchronization.* **Concurrent Intuition:** A visceral understanding of **L1****/****L2****cache** **coherency** (MESI), lock hierarchies, and why a "correct" C program can fail on weak-memory hardware if barriers are missing.* **Formal & Logical Rigor:** The ability to model software as a discrete state-machine. You should prefer a "proof of absence" (no bugs exist) over a "proof of presence" (one test passed).* **The Researcher's Grit:** Persistence in the face of "state space explosion" or cryptic model-checker errors. You must be a detective capable of pruning models to find one-in-a-billion interleaving failures.**Compensation:**The US base salary range for this full-time position is $38.00 - $46.00.* Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.* Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only. It does not include discretionary bonus, equity, or benefits.