← All roles

Lead Hardware Design Validation Engineer

NVIDIA· Engineer, Sys Design
Apply on company site
Santa Clara, CA$168k - $258.8kFull-timePosted 4mo ago

About the role

Lead Hardware Design Validation Engineer for GPU, datacenter and automotive platforms in Santa Clara, CA. Lead a team through end-to-end hardware validation from architecture/design through bring-up to mass production, coordinating across validation disciplines and with vendors, while driving system-level debugging, test plans, and validation automation.

Responsibilities

  • Own end-to-end product validation from architecture/design phase, through bring-up to mass production: set strategies, define test plans, and track progress to ensure the product meets spec and ships successfully.
  • Lead and mentor design validation engineers. Guide related validation teams (thermal, EMI, reliability, etc.) and partners (such as JDM) through the validation cycles. Represent design validation in executive and cross-functional product reviews and debug forums.
  • Be the accountable technical owner for validation status, risks, and different milestones/release readiness.
  • Define test plans across the full system based on product design, such as power, high-speed IO, low-speed IO, clock/resets, manageability (BMC), sensors, telemetry, firmware, full-system functional/stress validation etc.
  • Guide manufacturing test approaches; contribute to production troubleshooting and boosting yield.
  • Collaborate with and lead vendors and partners to complete validation activities.
  • Drive system-level debugging and root cause analysis on complex issues spanning silicon, board, system, signal integrity, firmware, and software.
  • Influence product design through design review and validation/debug feedback.
  • Build scalable validation automation and lab infrastructure across product lines.

Qualifications

  • BS+ in EE/CE or equivalent experience.
  • 8+ years of related experience with a proven track record as a technical lead for a shipping hardware product.
  • Proven leadership, leading validation through an entire product cycle from bring-up to mass production.
  • Strong system troubleshooting skills covering silicon, board, SI, firmware, OS, and applications.
  • Hands-on experience with power validation, including PDN, power regulators, sequencing, telemetry, protection etc.
  • Expertise in high-speed IO functionality and electrical validation, such as PCIe, SerDes, Ethernet, USB, or display.
  • Proficient in low-speed IO functionality and electrical validation, including I2C, SPI, UART, JTAG, SMbus, reference clock, etc.
  • System functional and stress test experience: define and complete system-level stress workloads to expose marginality and uncover corner-case failures.
  • Proficiency with lab equipment and scripting, comfortable in Linux environments including driver/firmware debug with strong communication and program management skills; able to lead across multiple teams, sites, and time zones.
  • Experience with manufacturing test plans, collaborating with OPs/CM/OEM teams, and driving production debug and yield improvement.
  • Willing to go to local manufacturing sites near Santa Clara (typically up to 5%) to support NPI builds and un-gate factory.

Skills

Required:End-to-end hardware validation leadershipSystem-level debuggingPower validationHigh-speed IO validationLow-speed IO validationValidation automation

Benefits

  • equity and benefits (as per company offerings)
  • NVIDIA benefits package reference link provided in description
Last updated Jun 26, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About NVIDIA

World Leader in AI Computing

NVIDIA invents the GPU and drives advances in AI, HPC, gaming, creative design, autonomous vehicles, and robotics.

AIautonomous vehiclesgaminggpugraphics cardhigh performance computingliquid-ai-recruiting-targetllm
Company profileWebsite

More open roles at NVIDIA