Principal Engineer - Validation

Renesas is looking for a 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

Qualifications

Required Skills & Experience

• B. E. /B. Tech or M. E. /M. Tech in Electronics, Electrical, or Computer Engineering, or equivalent industry experience.
• 16+ years of experience in semiconductor validation, characterization, or silicon engineering, with demonstrated ownership of silicon quality outcomes.
• 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.