Senior Principal Hardware Emulation Engineer

SambaNova Systems · San Jose, California · $210,000 - $280,000 USD · Posted 2026-08-18

SambaNova is a leader in next-generation AI infrastructure, delivering a full-stack inference platform for customers worldwide. At the core of SambaNova's technology is the RDU (Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit) — a chip built on a dataflow architecture rather than the traditional GPU model. Its decode performance is especially strong for agentic workloads like multi-turn agents, code generation, and long-running applications. RDUs are packaged into SambaRack, rack-scale hardware that lets customers deploy state-of-the-art models with better performance, greater energy efficiency, and faster time to value.

About the team

The emulation team builds the pre-silicon model of SambaNova's RDU that the software, architecture, and verification teams depend on.

About the role

SambaNova is looking for a Senior Principal Engineer to build and own the hardware emulation models for our next-generation Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit — the silicon behind our AI workload acceleration systems.

Emulation is a development platform here, not a checkbox. Our software teams bring up drivers, runtime, and compiler against the emulation model months before silicon. Our architects measure performance on it. Our verification team runs on it to get through scenarios that simulation cannot reach in useful time. When the model is fast, accurate, and available, three organizations move faster; when it is not, they wait.

Building that model is the core of the job. You will work shoulder to shoulder with the RTL design team to keep the design emulation-compliant, decide where a vendor model will do and where you need to write a custom one, and own the automation that keeps the platform running tests continuously rather than by hand. This is a senior individual-contributor role, and much of its leverage comes through other teams: you will be the person design, verification, and software engineers consult on what emulation can and should do, and the one who holds our emulator vendors to account.

Responsibilities

Build the models

Develop the emulation model for each new RDU generation: high-performance transactors, behavioral models, and memory models in SystemVerilog and C/C++
Partner with the RTL design team to keep the design emulation-compliant: review RTL and IP for constructs that will not map cleanly to the emulator, and close the gaps by substituting vendor emulation models or hand-coding custom models where no vendor model exists
Own model fidelity: make sure substituted and custom models track design intent closely enough that software, performance, and verification results can be trusted
Influence design decisions upstream so emulation-readiness is designed in rather than worked around

Own the platform, flows, and automation

Own the emulation environment architecture: build and runtime flows, partitioning, compile strategy, clocking, and memory configuration for each chip generation
Build and own the workflows that automate emulation testing on the hardware: job scheduling, regression launch, failure triage, and results reporting, so the platform runs continuously without manual babysitting
Own throughput and capacity: profile and remove bottlenecks in models, transactors, and testbench collateral so turnaround stays fast as the design grows
Own the emulator vendor relationship: drive blocking tool issues to resolution, hold the vendor accountable to our program schedule, and advise on platform selection and capacity investment

Serve the three primary use cases

Software and hardware co-development: deliver and sustain the platform software teams depend on for pre-silicon bring-up of drivers, runtime, and compiler, and debug hardware/software integration failures alongside them
Performance verification: enable workload bring-up, measurement methodology, and reproducible results, and work with architecture to correlate emulated performance against architectural models
Verification acceleration: partner with design verification to move long-running and full-chip regressions onto emulation reliably, including system-level and gate-level scenarios that are impractical in simulation
Silicon debug, secondary to the above: reproduce post-silicon issues on emulation when lab debug needs a controllable, fully visible model

Technical Leadership

Own the emulation methodology and mentor engineers on it, and act as the authority design, verification, and software teams consult when deciding what belongs on emulation

Required Qualifications

B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Related Field
10+ years of professional experience, including deep hands-on emulation work
Hands-on expertise bringing up and sustaining designs on an industry-standard emulation platform such as Palladium, Veloce, or Zebu: compile flows, partitioning, debug capabilities, and performance tuning
Strong SystemVerilog together with C/C++, applied to building transactors, behavioral models, memory models, and co-emulation infrastructure
Experience making a design emulation-ready: identifying RTL and IP that will not map to the emulator, and resolving it by substituting vendor emulation models or coding custom models
Track record owning an emulation platform across at least one full chip program, from bring-up through tape-out, including enabling software teams to run a real stack against the pre-silicon model
Track record owning an emulator vendor relationship: driving blocking tool issues to resolution and evaluating and landing new platform capabilities
Experience applying emulation to performance analysis, to accelerating functional verification regressions, or both
Deep debug ability across the hardware/software boundary: able to localize a failure that could be RTL, model, transactor, flow, or software
Scripting and automation in Python and shell: building the regression, scheduling, and triage workflows that keep an emulation platform continuously utilized
Demonstrated technical leadership without formal authority: setting methodology direction across design, verification, and software teams

Preferred Qualifications

M.S. or PHD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Related Field
Depth on Cadence Palladium
Hands-on experience on more than one emulation platform, with judgment about the trade-offs between them
Machine learning accelerators, dataflow architectures, or reconfigurable silicon
High-speed interconnect and memory modeling: PCIe, Ethernet, HBM/DDR
Virtual or hybrid platforms combining emulation with instruction-accurate models
FPGA prototyping platforms and design partitioning for prototyping
Post-silicon debug, reproducing lab failures on a pre-silicon platform
Compiler or runtime software background, or experience embedded on a software team
Fluency with Claude or other AI tools applied to flow development and automation

Base Salary Range:

Base Pay Range

$210,000—$280,000 USD

**Submission Guidelines **Please note that in order to be considered an applicant for any position at SambaNova Systems, you must submit an application form for each position for which you believe you are qualified.

**EEO Policy **SambaNova Systems is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard basis of age (40 and over), color, disability, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, national origin/ancestry, race, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding), sexual orientation, and any other applicable status protected by federal, state, or local laws.

Benefits Summary for US-Based, Full-Time Employment Positions SambaNova offers a competitive total rewards package, including the base salary, plus equity and benefits. We cover 95% premium coverage for employee medical insurance, and 77% premium coverage for dependents and offer a Health Savings Account (HSA) with employer contribution. We also offer Dental, Vision, Short/Long term Disability, Basic Life, Voluntary Life, and AD&D insurance plans in addition to Flexible Spending Account (FSA) options like Health Care, Limited Purpose, and Dependent Care. Our library of well-being benefits available to you and your dependents includes a full subscription to Headspace, Gympass+ membership with access to physical gyms, One Medical membership, counseling services with an Employee Assistance Program, and much more.

About SambaNova Systems

SambaNova Systems builds AI hardware and integrated systems to run AI applications from the data center to the cloud.