Lead Validation Architect - TX, Austin, United States
Originally posted 4 September 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role defines verification methodologies, validation strategies, and automation-ready test frameworks for server and accelerator platforms. It emphasizes validation architecture, coverage development, root-cause analysis, and automated verification infrastructure for AMD EPYC CPUs and Instinct accelerators.
What you'll do
- Partner with firmware architects and validation teams to define platform level firmware test strategies and coverage goals.
- Implement end-to-end test flows that validate firmware functionality across boot and runtime, producing repeatable artifacts for effective triage and defect closure.
- Generate requirements to enhance simulation platforms for exercising post-silicon level tests on pre-silicon environments.
- Execute tests, debug failures, and collaborate with firmware developers to drive timely defect resolution.
- Contribute to test strategy and coverage analysis, with emphasis on system-level firmware/hardware interactions and cross-domain dependencies.
What you'll need
- Relevant experience in firmware/software development, validation, or test development.
- Foundation in computer architecture and enterprise server platform features, with hands-on experience with SoC validation or system level bring-up and low-level debugging.
- Proven ability to scope pre-silicon tests and work with simulation/emulation teams to make virtual platforms useful for system level validation.
- Practical experience writing test code and tools in C and/or C++, and scripting in Python, Perl or Bash.
Nice to have
- Experience using AI-assisted engineering tools such as GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Copilot, LLM-based coding assistants, or automated test-generation tools.
- Experience developing AI-assisted automation workflows, agent-based systems, or data-driven validation frameworks.
- Knowledge of Simics or equivalent full system simulators.
- Experience or knowledge in one or more of the following areas: BIOS/UEFI concepts (ACPI, SMBIOS tables, DXE), RAS features and validation, Memory subsystem validation (DDR, persistent memory, error injection), Power management and telemetry, Platform security features (TPM, SPDM, Secure Boot, RoT-based attestation, PQC), Virtualization and firmware enablement (ACPI, SR-IOV), High-speed I/O validation (PCIe, CXL), Sideband protocols (MCTP, SPDM, PLDM, RDE).
This role has been open 41 days — well below the 56-day median for Embedded Firmware Engineering roles.
Embedded Firmware Engineering · Systems Software
|
Open roles in category
723
|
Median days open
56 d
|
Median salary
$166k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, and who else is hiring
| Metric | AMD | All employers we track in this specialty (723 roles · 82 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 59 | 723 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 404 | 6135 · 145 employers |
| Median days open | 36 d | 56 d (−20 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $166k |
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 117 open roles · median 65 d
- Micron Technology · 61 open roles · median 83 d
- NVIDIA · 59 open roles · median 57 d
- AMD (this employer) · 58 open roles · median 35 d
- Lattice Semiconductor · 43 open roles · median 36 d
- NXP Semiconductors · 28 open roles · median 42 d
How we counted: 723 open Embedded Firmware Engineering (Systems Software) roles from 82 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 15 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 Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.