About Altera
At Altera™, our independence as the world’s largest pure‑play FPGA solutions provider gives us the focus, speed, and agility to innovate without compromise. With more than four decades of industry‑leading FPGA expertise, our singular mission is to deliver the programmable technologies that help customers differentiate, innovate, and scale across rapidly evolving markets like AI, cloud, networking, and edge. As an independent company, we move faster, invest deeper, and partner more closely—empowering our teams to drive breakthrough innovation and shape the future of the FPGA industry.
About the Role
As a Product Development Engineer at Altera, you will play a critical role in bringing next-generation FPGA products from development into high-volume manufacturing by driving thermal characterization, system-level validation, and product performance optimization. In this role, you will develop and execute thermal characterization plans to evaluate device performance, reliability, and power behavior across operating temperature ranges, while performing detailed thermal and electrical characterization of FPGA products to correlate silicon measurements against design expectations and simulation models.
You will analyze characterization data to identify performance limitations, validate thermal specifications, and drive improvements across silicon design, package technology, cooling solutions, and manufacturing processes. In addition, you will lead the development and execution of System Level Test (SLT) methodologies to establish correlation between manufacturing test results and golden system-level performance, helping close tester-to-system performance gaps and optimize production test guardbands. This is a highly cross-functional role that partners closely with design, test, product engineering, packaging, manufacturing, and reliability teams to ensure Altera’s FPGA products meet performance, quality, and manufacturability targets at scale.
Responsibilities:
Develop and execute thermal characterization plans to evaluate device performance, reliability, and power behavior across operating temperature ranges.
Perform thermal and electrical characterization of FPGA products, including correlation of silicon measurements against design and simulation models.
Analyze thermal characterization data to identify performance limitations, validate thermal specifications, and drive design, package, cooling, and manufacturing improvements.
Develop and execute System Level Test (SLT) methodologies to establish correlation between manufacturing test results and golden system-level performance, driving closure of tester-to-system performance gaps and optimization of production test guardbands.
Develop and implement DFT strategies for FPGAs, including scan insertion, BIST (Built-In Self-Test), and test compression techniques.
Collaborate with RTL design and verification teams to ensure testability features are embedded efficiently.
Define and implement test plans, patterns, and fault models to ensure optimal test coverage and yield.
Develop and maintain ATPG (Automatic Test Pattern Generation), MBIST, and other manufacturing test content flows and scripts.
Perform pre-silicon test pattern simulation and validation to ensure test effectiveness prior to tape-out.
Analyze test results, debug silicon failures, and provide root cause analysis.
Work with manufacturing and test teams to optimize test time, cost, and quality.
Analyze early customer returns with emphasis on driving test hole closure activities.
Drive test time reduction through analysis of fallout data versus test time for various IPs to balance and drive overall product cost optimizations.
Stay updated with industry trends and emerging DFT/test technologies.
Salary Range
The pay range below is for Bay Area California only. Actual salary may vary based on a number of factors including job location, job-related knowledge, skills, experiences, trainings, etc. We also offer incentive opportunities that reward employees based on individual and company performance.
$106,200 - $153,000 USD
We use artificial intelligence to screen, assess, or select applicants for the position. Applicants must be eligible for any required U.S. export authorizations.
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Qualifications:Minimum Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Physics, or a related technical field with 4+ years of experience in product engineering, silicon validation, product development, or semiconductor characterization.
4+ years of experience with thermal and/or electrical characterization of semiconductor devices, including developing and executing characterization plans, collecting silicon data, and analyzing results across operating conditions.
Experience correlating silicon measurements with design expectations, simulation models, or product specifications to validate device performance, power, and reliability behavior.
Experience with system-level test, production test, or post-silicon validation methodologies, including analyzing test data to improve correlation between manufacturing test results and real system-level performance.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience working with FPGA, ASIC, or other complex semiconductor products in a product engineering, validation, or characterization environment.
Experience with thermal test methods, temperature chamber testing, and silicon performance characterization across voltage and temperature corners.
Knowledge of semiconductor manufacturing test flows, SLT, ATE correlation, guardband optimization, or yield/performance analysis.
Experience analyzing electrical, thermal, or performance data to identify trends, root cause issues, and drive product or test improvements.
Scripting and data analysis experience using Python, Perl, MATLAB, or similar tools to automate test execution and analyze characterization data.
Strong cross-functional communication skills with the ability to work effectively across design, test, manufacturing, packaging, and product engineering teams.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Physics, or related technical field
- 4+ years of experience in product engineering, silicon validation, product development, or semiconductor characterization
- 4+ years experience with thermal and/or electrical characterization of semiconductor devices, including developing/executing characterization plans and analyzing silicon data
- Experience correlating silicon measurements with design expectations, simulation models, or product specifications
- Experience with system-level test, production test, or post-silicon validation methodologies and analyzing test data for ATE/SLT correlation
- Experience working with FPGA, ASIC, or other complex semiconductor products in validation or characterization environments
- Experience with thermal test methods, temperature chamber testing, and voltage/temperature corner characterization
- Knowledge of semiconductor manufacturing test flows, SLT, ATE correlation, guardband optimization, and yield/performance analysis
- Experience analyzing electrical, thermal, or performance data to identify trends, root cause, and drive improvements
- Scripting and data analysis experience using Python, Perl, MATLAB, or similar tools to automate tests and analyze characterization data
- Strong cross-functional communication skills to work with design, test, manufacturing, packaging, and product teams
Altera (altera.com) Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Altera (altera.com) and has not been reviewed or approved by Altera (altera.com).
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Retirement Support — Feedback suggests retirement programs are robust, with offerings such as a 401(k) and a pension. This breadth supports long-term financial security.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Feedback suggests time-off policies are generous, including PTO, paid sick days, and paid holidays. Wellness initiatives like gym memberships further support balance.
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Parental & Family Support — Feedback suggests parental leave is generous. Family-building support, including fertility benefits and adoption reimbursement, is highlighted as part of the package.
Altera (altera.com) Insights
What We Do
Altera: Accelerating Innovators Altera provides leadership programmable solutions that are easy-to-use and deploy in applications from cloud to edge, offering limitless AI possibilities. Our end-to-end broad portfolio of products including FPGAs, CPLDs, Intellectual Property, development tools, System on Modules, SmartNICs and IPUs provide the flexibility to accelerate innovation. Altera is helping to shape the future through pioneering innovation that unlocks extraordinary possibilities for everyone on the planet.
