ISP Silicon Validation Engineer

Be part of a team that pushes boundaries, developing custom silicon solutions that power the future of Google's direct-to-consumer products. You'll contribute to the innovation behind products loved by millions worldwide. Your expertise will shape the next generation of hardware experiences, delivering unparalleled performance, efficiency, and integration.

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Our team combines the best of Google AI, Software, and Hardware to create radically helpful experiences. We research, design, and develop new technologies and hardware to make computing faster, seamless, and more powerful. We aim to make people's lives better through technology.

Individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

US: $116000 - $165000 (USD) + 15% bonus target + equity + benefits

Learn more about benefits at Google.

Responsibilities

• Translate hardware specifications into test suites, executing them thoroughly across both pre-silicon emulation and post-silicon hardware goals. Execute pipelines, debug failures, and collect data with guided supervision.
• Architect and write custom validation pipelines primarily in C, executed natively inside baremetal environments to probe the hardware directly.
• Deep-dive into the micro-architecture of real-time and non-real-time hardware accelerators, validating their functionality, performance throughput, and power footprints.
• Partner directly with Architecture, RTL Design, and downstream Software teams to trace, reproduce, and conquer hardware-software boundary bugs.
• Develop analytical scripts and validation frameworks to speed up the testing pipeline and ensure robust data collection.

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 1 year of experience in computer architecture, memory management, and low-level hardware components.
• Experience programming in C for low-level, embedded, microcontroller, or baremetal applications.
• Experience writing code to interface directly with hardware (e.g., handling interrupts, reading/writing registers, or manipulating peripherals).
• Experience in scripting (e.g., Python, Bash) for script automation or analytical data collection.

Preferred qualifications:

• 3 years of professional experience in low-level firmware, baremetal custom embedded systems, or silicon validation.
• Experience developing, testing, and debugging on pre-silicon emulation or post-silicon lab environments.
• Experience working directly with specialized hardware accelerators (Real-time or Non-real-time) or processing pipelines.
• Familiarity with hardware debug hooks (JTAG, TRACE32) and basic lab instrumentation (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers).
• Practical exposure to pure baremetal validation frameworks, custom firmware, or lightweight RTOS layers.
• Strong software development practices (e.g., clean, modular coding, version control with Git, pipeline optimization).

In most instances, this position requires in-person interviews as part of the hiring process.