Sr Principal Engineer - Validation

Renesas is looking for a Sr. Principal Engineer, Validation. to redefine how automotive‑grade silicon quality is built—driving first‑time‑right silicon, eliminating customer escapes, and setting a new industry benchmark for validation excellence

Key Responsibilities

• Define and own the end‑to‑end silicon validation strategy for automotive and HPC SoCs, from pre‑silicon enablement through post‑silicon production release.
• Ensure first‑time‑right silicon, robust validation coverage, and zero customer escapes across all assigned programs.
• Lead global validation teams responsible for silicon bring‑up, characterization, and system‑level validation across multiple concurrent programs.
• Establish and drive a System Use Case Validation Program, harvesting real customer/OEM and system scenarios and converting them into automated, traceable validation suites.
• Influence SoC architecture, design, and program decisions through early validation insights, risk identification, and data‑backed recommendations.
• Drive shift‑left validation as a measurable engineering program, increasing reuse across simulation, emulation/FPGA, and silicon to reduce late surprises.
• Own escape‑prevention strategy, including robustness testing, fault scenarios, coverage models, and disciplined validation signoff criteria.
• Build and scale high‑performing validation organizations, developing strong technical leadership (Staff/Principal pipeline) and execution ownership.
• Lead automation, standardization, and infrastructure modernization across validation labs, board farms, and CI systems.
• Establish validation methodologies, quality benchmarks, metrics, and dashboards aligned with Renesas standards and automotive expectations.
• Identify technical, execution, and program risks early; drive data‑driven mitigation and executive decision‑making.
• Provide clear executive‑level reporting on validation status, risks, readiness, and outcomes.
• Act as a trusted partner to Design, DV, Test, Firmware, Software, Product Engineering, Quality, and BU leadership.
• Adoption of industry best practices as a measurable program

Required Skills & Experience

• B.E./B. Tech or M.E./M. Tech in Electronics, Electrical, or Computer Engineering, or equivalent industry experience.
• 18+ years of experience in semiconductor validation, characterization, or silicon engineering, with demonstrated ownership of silicon quality outcomes.
• 3+ years in senior technical leadership roles
• Strong domain expertise in automotive SoC validation, system‑level use‑case testing, and robustness validation.
• Proven experience delivering complex SoC programs from first silicon through production release.
• Deep understanding of silicon validation flows, lab environments, and post‑silicon debug ecosystems.
• Demonstrated success building and scaling automation‑first validation frameworks using Python, C++, or similar technologies.
• Strong experience driving cross‑functional execution in a matrixed, global environment.
• Excellent executive communication, stakeholder management, and decision‑making skills.
• Experience with AI frameworks for SoC Validation efficiency and quality gain— eg validation specific AI agents, Cody AI for content development etc.

Preferred

• Experience with ISO 26262 / ASIL‑D development and validation environments.
• Exposure to emulation/FPGA‑based shift‑left validation and pre↔post silicon continuity models.
• Strong foundation in mixed‑signal and digital silicon validation, including pattern‑based and system‑level methodologies.
• Track record of institutionalizing industry best practices across multiple programs and organizations.
• Experience leading culture change toward proactive risk ownership, evidence‑based closure, and challenge‑ready execution.
• Automotive OEM or Tier‑1 customer engagement experience.

Renesas is an embedded semiconductor solution provider driven by its Purpose ‘

To Make Our Lives Easier

.’ As the industry’s leading expert in embedded processing with unmatched quality and system-level know-how, we have evolved to provide scalable and comprehensive semiconductor solutions for automotive, industrial, infrastructure, and IoT industries based on the broadest product portfolio, including High Performance Computing, Embedded Processing, Analog & Connectivity, and Power.

With a diverse team of over 21,000 professionals in more than 30 countries, we continue to expand our boundaries to offer enhanced user experiences through digitalization and usher into a new era of innovation. We design and develop sustainable, power-efficient solutions today that help people and communities thrive tomorrow, ‘

To Make Our Lives Easier

.’

At Renesas, you can:

Launch and advance your career

in technical and business roles across four Product Groups and various corporate functions. You will have the opportunities to explore our hardware and software capabilities and try new things.

Make a real impact

by developing innovative products and solutions to meet our global customers' evolving needs and help make people’s lives easier, safe and secure.

Maximize your performance and wellbeing

in our flexible and inclusive work environment. Our people-first culture and global support system, including the remote work option and Employee Resource Groups, will help you excel from the first day.

Are you ready to own your success and make your mark?

Join Renesas. Let’s

Shape the Future

together.

Renesas Electronics is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer, committed to supporting diversity and fostering a work environment free of discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion, national origin, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, military status, veteran status, or any other basis protected by law. For more information, please read our Diversity & Inclusion Statement.

We have adopted a hybrid model that gives employees the ability to work remotely two days a week while ensuring that we come together as a team in the office the rest of the time. The designated in-office days are Tuesday through Thursday for innovation, collaboration and continuous learning.

• B.E./B. Tech or M.E./M. Tech in Electronics, Electrical, or Computer Engineering, or equivalent industry experience.
• 18+ years of experience in semiconductor validation, characterization, or silicon engineering, with demonstrated ownership of silicon quality outcomes.
• 3+ years in senior technical leadership roles
• Strong domain expertise in automotive SoC validation, system‑level use‑case testing, and robustness validation.
• Proven experience delivering complex SoC programs from first silicon through production release.
• Deep understanding of silicon validation flows, lab environments, and post‑silicon debug ecosystems.
• Demonstrated success building and scaling automation‑first validation frameworks using Python, C++, or similar technologies.
• Strong experience driving cross‑functional execution in a matrixed, global environment.
• Excellent executive communication, stakeholder management, and decision‑making skills.
• Experience with AI frameworks for SoC Validation efficiency and quality gain— eg validation specific AI agents, Cody AI for content development etc.
• Experience with ISO 26262 / ASIL‑D development and validation environments.
• Exposure to emulation/FPGA‑based shift‑left validation and pre↔post silicon continuity models.
• Strong foundation in mixed‑signal and digital silicon validation, including pattern‑based and system‑level methodologies.
• Track record of institutionalizing industry best practices across multiple programs and organizations.
• Experience leading culture change toward proactive risk ownership, evidence‑based closure, and challenge‑ready execution.
• Automotive OEM or Tier‑1 customer engagement experience.