Lead Verification Engineer

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

Job Description: AI Design Validation Specialist (Verification / Workflow SME)

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced AI EDA Specialist (Verification / Workflow SME) to bridge the gap between semiconductor verification methodologies and AI-driven automation. This role will serve as the domain expert responsible for validating AI-generated verification artifacts, debugging customer verification challenges, developing ground-truth datasets, and ensuring AI solutions align with industry-standard verification workflows.

The ideal candidate combines deep expertise in SystemVerilog, UVM, simulation, and formal verification with a passion for enabling next-generation AI-powered engineering solutions.

Key Responsibilities

Verification Workflow Validation

• Validate AI-generated outputs across RTL verification workflows.
• Review and assessment generated:UVM testbenches Assertions (SVA) Coverage strategies Simulation and formal verification flows
• Ensure compliance with industry-standard verification methodologies and best practices.

Customer Technical Support & Debugging

• Investigate and resolve customer-reported issues involving:UVM environments RTL verification testbenches Functional coverage Assertion failures Simulation regressions
• Reproduce, analyze, and document root causes of complex verification problems.
• Partner closely with customers, application engineers, and product teams to drive issue resolution.

Ground Truth & Benchmark Development

• Develop and maintain benchmark verification datasets and golden reference test cases.
• Establish correctness criteria for evaluating AI-generated verification artifacts.
• Build validation suites for model qualification and regression testing.

AI Model Enablement

• Collaborate with AI/LLM engineers to improve accuracy and verification relevance of AI-generated outputs.
• Review model responses and provide feedback for fine-tuning and evaluation.
• Translate semiconductor verification workflows into structured AI evaluation scenarios.
• Help reduce hallucinations and improve technical correctness of AI-assisted verification solutions.

EDA Workflow Integration

• Validate interoperability between AI systems and industry-standard EDA tools.
• Support workflow automation across:Simulation Regression management Coverage analysis Formal verification
• Identify opportunities to improve verification productivity through AI-assisted automation.

Required Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in:Electrical Engineering Computer Engineering Computer Science Related technical discipline

Experience

• 6–10 years of experience in semiconductor verification.
• Proven experience developing and debugging complex UVM-based verification environments.
• Hands-on experience with RTL, IP, subsystem, or SoC verification projects.

Technical Skills

Verification Expertise

• Strong knowledge of:SystemVerilog UVM RTL Verification Functional Coverage Code Coverage Assertion-Based Verification (SVA) Constrained Random Methodologies

Debug & Analysis

• Expertise debugging:Simulation failures Assertion violations Coverage gaps Verification regressions Complex multi-component testbenches

EDA Tools

Experience with one or more of the following:

• Cadence Xcelium
• Synopsys VCS
• Siemens QuestaSim
• Cadence JasperGold
• Synopsys VC Formal
• Verification management and regression platforms

Automation Skills

• Python
• Shell scripting
• TCL scripting
• Workflow automation and test framework development

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting customers or field engineering organizations.
• Familiarity with AI, LLMs, or AI-assisted EDA workflows.
• Experience developing verification automation frameworks.
• Knowledge of agentic AI systems and evaluation methodologies.
• Exposure to semiconductor EDA product development or application engineering.

Key Competencies

• Deep semiconductor verification expertise.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to translate AI outputs into technically correct verification solutions.
• Excellent communication and customer interaction skills.
• Cross-functional collaboration across engineering, AI, product, and customer teams.
• Passion for driving innovation through AI-enabled verification technologies.

Success Metrics

• AI-generated verification accuracy against ground-truth benchmarks.
• Reduction in customer issue resolution time.
• Improvement in workflow validation pass rates.
• Reduction in AI-generated verification errors and hallucinations.
• Growth of validated benchmark datasets and test suites.
• Improved customer productivity and adoption of AI-assisted verification workflows.

Role Impact: This role serves as the semiconductor verification authority responsible for ensuring AI-generated verification outputs are technically accurate, workflow-compliant, and production-ready for deployment across customer environments.

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