Lead Engineer - Emulation

Role

Provide technical leadership for FPGA-based SoC prototyping and emulation, with primary ownership of complex multi-FPGA prototyping, partitioning, FPGA implementation, timing closure, board bring-up and system-level debug. Drive FPGA emulator-based validation using platforms such as HAPS-100, ZeBu and Veloce, while establishing methodologies, automation and optimization strategies to improve capacity, performance, debug efficiency and pre-silicon validation TAT. Serve as the technical authority and escalation point for complex FPGA prototyping and emulation challenges.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end FPGA prototyping and emulation of complex SoC/ASIC designs, covering RTL readiness, synthesis, partitioning, P&R, bitfile generation, hardware bring-up, validation and system-level debug.
• Own and drive multi-FPGA prototyping for large and complex SoC designs using platforms such as HAPS, Protium and other FPGA-based prototyping systems, with strong focus on capacity, performance and scalability.
• Drive emulator-based validation on platforms such as ZeBu and Veloce, including model bring-up, compilation, partitioning, debug, performance optimization and integration with DV/SV/FW environments.
• Provide technical leadership in selecting and optimizing the appropriate FPGA prototyping vs. emulator strategy based on design size, debug requirements, performance, software execution and validation objectives.
• Lead multi-FPGA partitioning and interconnect optimization, addressing FPGA resource utilization, pin multiplexing, routing congestion, cross-FPGA communication and partition-level timing challenges.
• Own FPGA timing closure for complex multi-clock SoCs, including clock architecture analysis, clock/reset adaptation, constraint development, timing analysis and resolution of critical timing paths.
• Lead FPGA board bring-up and system integration, including clocks, resets, JTAG, memories and key interfaces such as SPI, I2C, UART, MDIO, PCIe and other SoC interfaces.
• Drive prototype/emulator model bring-up and debug, using FPGA probes, waveform/debug tools and hardware/software correlation to identify issues across RTL, FPGA implementation, hardware and firmware.
• Analyze RTL-to-netlist implementation, identify synthesis and implementation challenges, and work with RTL/design teams on modifications required for successful FPGA prototyping and emulation.
• Optimize synthesis and P&R flows to improve FPGA QoR, timing, utilization and build/compile turnaround time.
• Define and establish FPGA prototyping and emulation methodologies, flows and best practices to improve model bring-up, debug efficiency and overall pre-silicon validation TAT.
• Lead evaluation of next-generation FPGA prototyping and emulation platforms, assessing capacity, performance, compile time, debug capability, scalability and suitability for future SoC programs.
• Drive tool and flow validation across FPGA synthesis, P&R and prototyping/emulation environments, working closely with EDA/tool development teams on new features, stability and performance improvements.
• Develop automation and productivity solutions using TCL/Perl/Python to automate FPGA builds, partition analysis, regression, QoR extraction, timing analysis, log analysis and result correlation.
• Establish metrics and continuously optimize FPGA build time, emulation compile time, runtime performance, resource utilization, timing, capacity and overall prototyping/emulation turnaround time.
• Serve as the technical escalation point for complex FPGA prototyping and emulation issues, driving root-cause analysis and resolution across FPGA, RTL, tools, hardware and software domains.
• Collaborate closely with Architecture, Design, DV, SV, Firmware, Software, Board and EDA teams to ensure smooth transition from RTL to FPGA prototype/emulator and accelerate pre-silicon validation.
• Provide technical leadership and mentoring to engineers in FPGA architecture, multi-FPGA partitioning, synthesis/P&R, timing closure, board bring-up, emulator flows and debug methodologies.
• Drive technical reviews with senior stakeholders, providing status, technical risks, dependencies, mitigation plans and execution strategy for major FPGA prototyping and emulation programs.