Emulation Engineer
Tenstorrent is leading the industry on cutting-edge AI technology, revolutionizing performance expectations, ease of use, and cost efficiency. With AI redefining the computing paradigm, solutions must evolve to unify innovations in software models, compilers, platforms, networking, and semiconductors. Our diverse team of technologists have developed a high performance RISC-V CPU from scratch, and share a passion for AI and a deep desire to build the best AI platform possible. We value collaboration, curiosity, and a commitment to solving hard problems. We are growing our team and looking for contributors of all seniorities.
We are looking for an Emulation Engineer to develop and deploy emulation solutions for complex SoC and chiplet-based designs. In this role, you will work closely with RTL, DV, architecture, firmware, and software teams to enable early software bring-up, improve verification throughput, and accelerate debug on emulation platforms. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys solving system-level problems, improving validation efficiency, and building scalable emulation infrastructure that can be reused across projects.
This role is hybrid, based out of Tokyo, Japan.
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.
Who You Are
- You have a BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field, along with solid experience in SoC or chiplet-based emulation, prototyping, or verification.
- You are fluent in SystemVerilog and comfortable working across DPI-C, C or C++, Python, and shell scripting for automation, debug, and test enablement.
- You have hands-on experience with commercial emulation platforms such as Cadence Palladium, Synopsys ZeBu, Siemens Veloce, or HAPS, and understand how to adapt environments for functionality, performance, and scalability.
- You are a collaborative and self-driven engineer who works effectively across RTL, DV, firmware, and architecture teams and is comfortable debugging issues across hardware and software boundaries.
What We Need
- Develop and maintain emulation environments for block, subsystem, and full-chip or chiplet systems, including porting simulation test benches and workloads onto hardware-assisted verification platforms.
- Optimize test benches, transactors, trackers, and checkers for emulation readiness, performance, scalability, and regression throughput.
- Drive early use-case verification and software bring-up by integrating boot flows, firmware, bare-metal tests, OS bring-up, and system-level workloads into the emulation environment.
- Debug failures across RTL, test bench, firmware, and emulation infrastructure while creating reusable collateral, scripts, and methodology improvements that help internal teams use emulation more effectively.
What You Will Learn
- How Tenstorrent brings together chiplet-based systems, AI compute, interconnects, firmware, and software into a unified pre-silicon validation flow.
- How emulation accelerates software and firmware bring-up earlier in the development cycle and helps uncover critical integration issues before tape-out.
- How to build scalable emulation methodologies that improve system-level verification, debug efficiency, and cross-functional productivity across projects.
- How emulation fits into a broader silicon bring-up strategy, bridging RTL, architecture, DV, firmware, and post-silicon needs in a fast-moving environment.
Tenstorrent offers a highly competitive compensation package and benefits, and we are an equal opportunity employer.
This offer of employment is contingent upon the applicant being eligible to access U.S. export-controlled technology. Due to U.S. export laws, including those codified in the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR), the Company is required to ensure compliance with these laws when transferring technology to nationals of certain countries (such as EAR Country Groups D:1, E1, and E2). These requirements apply to persons located in the U.S. and all countries outside the U.S. As the position offered will have direct and/or indirect access to information, systems, or technologies subject to these laws, the offer may be contingent upon your citizenship/permanent residency status or ability to obtain prior license approval from the U.S. Commerce Department or applicable federal agency. If employment is not possible due to U.S. export laws, any offer of employment will be rescinded.
Semiconductor pay context
Based on 269 disclosed Semiconductor salaries on RoleSuite, the role pays a median of $180K/year, with most offers between $148K and $206K (10th–90th percentile: $132K–$238K).
See the full Semiconductor salary breakdown →