CPU Power & Performance Validation Engineer - CA, Folsom, United States
Originally posted 9 October 2026 by the employer.
About the role
What you'll do
- Validate Core IP for performance and power accuracy against product specifications and performance targets.
- Execute benchmarks and workloads to evaluate silicon performance and power behavior.
- Identify, investigate, and debug performance and power issues, including complex corner cases.
- Partner with design teams to understand specifications, technical requirements, and expected workload behavior.
- Develop and maintain Python-based scripting and automation supporting validation, hardware equipment, and configuration workflows.
- Use performance, power, thermal, and monitoring equipment to characterize and validate silicon behavior.
What you'll need
- Strong experience with CPU or silicon performance and power validation, including performance-at-power analysis.
- Knowledge of power management features and their impact on system performance and power.
- Experience executing benchmarks, analyzing results, identifying performance gaps, and debugging complex silicon or system-level issues.
- Hands-on experience with performance, power, and thermal equipment such as power analyzers, thermal monitors, thermal equipment, and chillers.
- Strong Python scripting and automation skills.
- Understanding of CPU architecture.
Nice to have
- Knowledge of BIOS and firmware interactions.
- Experience with benchmark development.
- Experience identifying technical corner cases and working cross-functionally with design and engineering teams to drive issues toward resolution.
- Comfort using AI-assisted engineering tools for automation, data analysis, and technical debugging.
Skills: CPU performance, power validation, silicon debug, benchmarks, thermal equipment
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 41-day median for Post-Silicon Validation roles.
Post-Silicon Validation · Silicon Validation
|
Open roles in category
401
|
Median days open
41 d
|
Median salary
$174k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | AMD | All employers we track in this specialty (401 roles · 63 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 57 | 401 |
| Open roles in the wider Silicon Validation & Test family | 159 | 2209 · 111 employers |
| Median days open | 42 d | 41 d (+1 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $174k |
Skills observed across this category: CPU performance, power validation, silicon debug, benchmarks, thermal equipment
Who's hiring in this category
- AMD (this employer) · 56 open roles · median 51 d
- Micron Technology · 41 open roles · median 35 d
- Qualcomm · 33 open roles · median 28 d
- Graphcore · 22 open roles · median 113 d
- NVIDIA · 21 open roles · median 28 d
- Microchip Technology · 20 open roles · median 66 d
How we counted: 401 open Post-Silicon Validation (Silicon Validation) roles from 63 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 9 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Silicon Validation & Test family row. Figures refresh nightly.