Senior Staff Engineer, Tenstorrent
Emulation Validation Lead
$100-500k
OTE
Next-generation computing company building computers for AI
Open for applications
Next-generation computing company building computers for AI
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$100-500k
OTE
1001+ employees
Company mission
To bring unique solutions to the problems facing AI and machine learning.
Role
Who you are
- BS/MS/PhD in EE, Computer Science, or similar with 7+ years of industry experience in hardware validation and emulation (10+ years preferred for senior leadership levels)
- Deep expertise with commercial emulation platforms including Palladium, Veloce, ZeBu, HAPS, or custom FPGA-based emulation solutions, with proven experience optimizing emulation performance and capacity
- Strong programming and verification skills in SystemVerilog, Verilog, and industry-standard testbench methodologies (UVM/OVM), including assertions, coverage analysis, and debug tools/waveform viewers
- Proven experience in both pre-silicon and post-silicon validation, including test plan development, test execution, regression frameworks, and failure analysis for complex SoC or CPU designs
- Technical leadership experience building or leading validation teams, establishing processes, and driving cross-functional initiatives with design, architecture, and software teams
- Self-assessment confidence in emulation and DV/simulation environments, with the ability to architect end-to-end validation strategies and make critical technical tradeoffs
- A seasoned validation architect with 7+ years of hands-on experience in emulation-based validation, spanning both pre-silicon verification and post-silicon bring-up environments
- A technical leader who thrives on building teams and mentoring engineers, capable of establishing validation methodologies and best practices while remaining hands-on when needed
- A systems thinker who understands the full validation lifecycle—from RTL simulation and emulation testbench development through silicon failure analysis and debug
- Collaborative by nature, with a track record of working across geographically distributed teams, partnering with design engineers, architects, and external vendors to solve complex problems
- Resilient and adaptable, comfortable with ambiguity and excited by the challenge of building validation infrastructure from scratch in a fast-paced startup environment
- Driven by impact, motivated by the opportunity to shape validation strategy for cutting-edge AI/ML processors and own outcomes that directly affect product success
- We welcome candidates at various experience levels for this role. During the interview process, candidates will be assessed for the appropriate level, and offers will align with that level, which may differ from the one in this posting
What the job involves
- We're seeking an Emulation Validation Lead to architect and drive our emulation validation strategy across both pre-silicon and post-silicon phases
- As the technical leader of our Austin-based emulation team, you'll build validation infrastructure from the ground up, establish best practices, and mentor a growing team of engineers
- This role sits at the critical intersection of design verification and silicon bring-up, ensuring our industry-leading AI/ML architectures meet performance and functional requirements before and after tapeout
- You'll collaborate closely with design teams, work with hardware resources in Toronto, and partner with emulation platform vendors to push the boundaries of validation efficiency
- This is a high-impact leadership role where your technical decisions and team-building efforts will directly influence Tenstorrent's product quality and time-to-market
- Cutting-edge AI/ML architecture validation, working on Tenstorrent's high-performance RISC-V CPU and custom AI accelerators at the forefront of the AI revolution
- End-to-end ownership of validation infrastructure, from selecting and deploying emulation platforms to defining team processes and establishing validation culture in a high-growth organization
- Collaborative innovation across disciplines, partnering with world-class designers, architects, and software engineers who built a RISC-V CPU from scratch and are redefining AI compute
- Strategic leadership skills, growing and mentoring a technical team in Austin while coordinating with hardware teams in Toronto and collaborating with global partners
- Silicon bring-up mastery through real-world post-silicon validation, debugging complex hardware issues, and driving root cause analysis on industry-leading AI chips
- Emulation platform optimization techniques, working directly with vendors and internal teams to push performance boundaries and unlock new validation methodologies
Our take
Tenstorrent is a US- and Canada-based semiconductor startup specializing in processors for AI workloads. Rather than building gneral-purpose CPUs or GPus, the company develops custom chips and sofrware optimized for running moder AI models. As demand for AI accelerates, and as a global chip shortage reshapes the semiconductor industry, these trends have become strong tailwinds for Tenstorrent.
The company’s unique approach is to build for this future software, which it believes will be written at a higher level. Combining this with conditional computing, Tenstorrent supports a scalable distributed network approach that is analogous to a human brain.
While the market for specialized AI hardware is destined to be gigantic, the company has to compete with a plethora of hopeful startups (as well as major tech companies like NVIDIA and Qualcomm). That said, Tenstorrent boasts an excellent trajectory so far, with its latest moves including unveiling its high-end Wormhole AI processors, and a partnership with LG which will see the development of chips for "Affectionate Intelligence".
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
52% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 7 rounds)
Dec 2024
$693m
SERIES D
Jun 2024
$300m
LATE VC
Total funding: $1.3bn
Company HQ
Flemingdon Park, Toronto, ON
Leadership
Jim Keller
(CEO)Previously Senior VP of Silicon Engineering at Intel Corporation, VP of Autopilot Hardware Engineering at Tesla, Corporate VP and Chief Architect at AMD, and VP of Engineering at Apple.
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