Senior CPU Emulation Engineer

AheadComputing
AheadComputing

Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

Posted on Jul 3, 2026

Responsibilities

  • Support emulation bring-up of CPU RTL on hardware emulation platforms, including design partitioning, clock domain handling, and memory/IO modeling.
  • Develop and maintain testbench infrastructure, C/C++ DPI-based transactors, and speed bridges enabling emulation-based execution of firmware, bootloaders, and OS-level workloads.
  • Debug complex hardware/software interaction issues surfaced during emulation runs, collaborating with RTL, verification, and software teams to isolate and resolve root causes.
  • Build and optimize emulation compile, regression, and debug flows to improve throughput, turnaround time, and platform utilization.
  • Contribute to emulation capacity planning and methodology improvements as design coverage scales.
  • Collaborate cross-functionally with design, verification, and post-silicon validation teams to define emulation test plans and bridge pre-silicon and post-silicon validation.

Qualifications & Skills

Education:

  • Bachelor's (BS) or Master's (MS) degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.

Experience:

  • Minimum 4 years of pre-silicon emulation experience with an MS degree or 6 years with a BS degree, including hands-on work with hardware emulation platforms (e.g., Synopsys ZeBu, Siemens Veloce, Cadence Palladium) on CPU or SoC designs.
  • Expertise in SystemVerilog and Python for testbench and transactor development, debugging, and scripting automation.
  • Familiarity with ARM, x86, or RISC-V architectures and assembly language programming.
  • Programming experience in industry-standard languages (e.g., C, C++, Perl, Python).
  • Experience with RTL compile/synthesis flows for emulation, design partitioning, and timing/clocking considerations specific to emulation platforms.
  • Familiarity with standard SoC interface protocols (e.g., PCIe, DDR, USB, AXI, SPI, I2C) relevant to system-level bring-up on emulation.

Skills & Competencies:

  • Exceptional problem-solving skills with the ability to debug complex hardware/software issues that only surface at full-system scale.
  • Proficiency with industry-standard debug and waveform analysis tools (e.g., Verdi, Verisium) for root-causing emulation failures.
  • Strong understanding of microarchitectural concepts and CPU pipeline verification.
  • Experience creating reusable test environments and verification infrastructure.
  • Familiarity with UVM or similar frameworks and how they interface with emulation environments (nice to have).
  • Exposure to OS or firmware bring-up and boot flows is a plus.

What We Offer

  • Competitive salary and benefits package.
  • Opportunities for professional growth in an innovative startup environment.
  • Collaboration with talented engineers passionate about cutting-edge CPU technologies.
  • Opportunity to disrupt the CPU ecosystem.
  • A flexible and inclusive work culture based in Guadalajara, México.