Engineering Manager/Lead ASIC Validation (Back-Fill Role)

Job Title: Engineering Manager/Lead ASIC Validation Location: Sunnyvale, CA Onsite Experience: 10+ Years Employment Type: Contract / Project-Based

Job Overview

We are looking for an experienced Engineering Manager/Lead ASIC Validation to lead and coordinate silicon infrastructure and validation deliverables for a strategic hyperscaler account.

The ideal candidate will have a strong combination of hands-on ASIC/silicon validation experience, software test development, test automation, and engineering leadership. This person will work closely with silicon design teams, platform engineers, customer teams, and distributed engineering organizations to drive validation activities from development through execution and debugging.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and manage ASIC/silicon validation activities across multiple projects and engineering teams.
• Develop and maintain validation tests using C and Python targeting various ASIC/IP blocks.
• Develop, execute, debug, and maintain pre-silicon validation test frameworks. Pre-silicon experience is critical.
• Support post-silicon validation and debugging activities; post-silicon experience is highly desirable.
• Build and maintain Python-based test automation frameworks for silicon validation.
• Work closely with ASIC design, firmware, hardware, platform, and validation teams to identify and resolve issues.
• Lead daily validation triage, issue tracking, debugging, and resolution activities.
• Manage deliverables across distributed teams, vendors, and multiple time zones.
• Drive execution of validation projects, milestones, schedules, and customer deliverables.
• Support hardware validation CI/CD pipelines and automation infrastructure.
• Analyze validation data and use metrics to drive engineering decisions and improve execution.
• Interface directly with customers and senior technical leadership.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to validation engineers and software/test engineers.
• Coordinate multiple projects while maintaining strong operational and delivery discipline.
• Support silicon validation activities such as PVT characterization, frequency binning, power/thermal analysis, and production test flows.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in software development, silicon validation, test engineering, or related hardware/software infrastructure.
• 8+ years of hands-on silicon validation, ASIC validation, test engineering, or hardware infrastructure experience.
• 3+ years of engineering management/team leadership experience.
• Strong hands-on experience developing validation tests using C and/or Python.
• Strong pre-silicon validation experience is required.
• Experience developing, executing, and debugging test frameworks in pre-silicon environments.
• Experience with post-silicon validation is a strong plus.
• Strong understanding of ASIC/silicon validation methodologies and workflows.
• Experience with Python-based test automation frameworks.
• Experience with hardware/silicon validation CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience working with ASIC IP blocks and silicon validation infrastructure.
• Experience managing distributed engineering teams and/or vendor teams.
• Strong customer-facing and stakeholder-management experience.
• Ability to manage multiple projects, priorities, and technical deliverables simultaneously.
• Strong debugging, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication skills with engineering teams, customers, and senior leadership.
• Must be comfortable working onsite in Sunnyvale, CA.

Nice to Have

• Experience with PVT characterization, frequency binning, power/thermal analysis, and production test flows.
• Experience working with large-scale internal developer ecosystems and tooling platforms.
• Experience with AI/ML accelerator silicon, including training or inference ASICs.
• Firmware-level test tooling experience.
• Experience developing automation scripts and validation infrastructure.
• Experience working with hyperscaler environments.