Senior Software Engineer — RISC-V Instruction Set Simulator
$167,100 - $250,700 USD yearly
Originally posted 1 September 2026 by the employer.
Work on a high-performance, production-grade RISC-V Instruction Set Simulator that serves as the golden reference model for 64-bit RISC-V processors.
About the role
This role involves building a high-performance, production-grade RISC-V Instruction Set Simulator (ISS) that serves as the golden reference model for a family of 64-bit RISC-V processors. The ISS is a key component of the verification flow, driving co-simulation against RTL and powering random test generation.
What you'll do
- Translate RISC-V specification chapters into working C code, covering various extensions.
- Maintain the fetch/decode/execute engine, memory protection, virtual memory, and privilege-level logic for simulation correctness.
- Work on the harness that runs the ISS alongside RTL and flags any differences.
- Write targeted unit tests that exercise individual features and compare against expected results.
- Contribute to and maintain a large collection of simulator extensions and utilities.
What you'll need
- Solid C skills and comfort reading unfamiliar codebases.
- Comfortable with basic processor architecture, including pipelines, memory, privilege levels, and interrupts.
- Strong attention to detail and willingness to read a specification document to turn it into tested code.
- Exposure to low-level or systems programming, such as embedded systems, operating systems, compilers, or hardware description.
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field and 4+ years of work experience, OR Master's degree and 3+ years, OR PhD and 2+ years.
Nice to have
- Experience with RISC-V, x86, or ARM architecture.
- Familiarity with simulators or emulators such as QEMU, Spike, gem5.
- Experience with GDB, ELF binaries, or bare-metal bring-up.
- Background in hardware verification or RTL co-simulation.
- Knowledge of Linux internals.
- Python 3 experience.
Skills: RISC-V, Instruction Set Simulator, co-simulation, firmware, Linux
This role has been open 43 days — well below the 61-day median for Systems Software Engineering roles.
Systems Software Engineering · Systems Software
|
Open roles in category
681
|
Median days open
61 d
|
Median salary
$217k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Qualcomm | All employers we track in this specialty (681 roles · 73 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 166 | 681 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 705 | 6164 · 146 employers |
| Median days open | 78 d | 61 d (+17 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $217k |
Skills observed across this category: RISC-V, Instruction Set Simulator, co-simulation, firmware, Linux
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm (this employer) · 163 open roles · median 77 d
- NVIDIA · 137 open roles · median 47 d
- AMD · 59 open roles · median 54 d
- Mobileye · 27 open roles · median 69 d
- Broadcom · 21 open roles · median 50 d
- Arm Holdings · 20 open roles · median 111 d
How we counted: 681 open Systems Software Engineering (Systems Software) roles from 73 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 14 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.