Senior Principal Software Engineer - Accelerated Verification IP

The AVIP (Accelerated Verification IP) and Virtual Bridge (VB) business is a core part of Cadence’s Virtual Emulation and System Verification portfolio, enabling high‑performance verification on Palladium and Protium platforms. The team builds high‑performance protocol solutions that enable customers to verify complex SoCs and systems at much higher speed and scale than traditional simulation.

Together, AVIP and VB are critical to customers building high‑performance compute, AI, networking, and memory‑coherent systems, where early software bring‑up, performance analysis, and protocol compliance are essential.

The AVIP / Virtual Bridge R&D team designs, implements, and productizes protocol solutions that span hardware, software, and system‑level verification. The team works across multiple layers, including:

• Protocol architecture and feature definition
• High‑performance transactor and BFM development
• Hardware‑software co‑simulation and emulation flows
• Debug, logging, performance profiling, and compliance features
• Customer enablement, escalations, and interoperability validation

The team supports a broad portfolio of industry‑standard protocols, such as PCIe, CXL, Ethernet, USB, UCIe, and emerging interconnects, and works closely with emulation platform teams, controller/PHY teams, and customers.

This role will contribute directly to the development and enhancement of PCIe/CXL AVIP and/or  PCIe/CXL Virtual Bridge products, focusing on protocol functionality, performance, and robustness. Depending on the specific protocol area, the work may involve:

• Implementing PCIe protocol features and state machines
• Enhancing performance and scalability on emulation platforms
• Developing debug, trace, and analysis capabilities
• Supporting system‑level and software‑driven use cases via PCIe Virtual Bridge
• Working with customers and field teams to resolve issues and deliver solutions related to PCIe and CXL

In this role, the engineer will be responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining PCIe/CXL AVIP/VB components as part of a larger protocol solution. The role is hands‑on and spans feature development, validation, and customer readiness.

• Designing and implementing protocol functionality in PCIe AVIP and/or Virtual Bridge components
• Developing and debugging BFMs, transactors, and associated software interfaces
• Ensuring correctness, performance, and scalability in emulation and acceleration flows
• Collaborating with cross‑functional teams
• Participating in feature bring‑up, regression, and release activities
• Supporting customer issues, reproducing problems, and delivering fixes

What you’ll need

• BS with a minimum of 10 years of experience OR MS with a minimum of 7 years of experience OR PhD with a minimum of 5 years of experience
• Strong fundamentals in digital design, computer architecture, and system‑level verification
• Experience with hardware description languages (SystemVerilog/Verilog) and/or C/C++
• Understanding of standard interconnect or IO protocols (e.g., PCIe, CXL,  NVMe)
• Familiarity with emulation, acceleration, or hybrid verification flows is a strong plus
• Good debugging skills using waveforms, logs, and protocol analyzers
• Ability to work across hardware and software boundaries

The annual salary range for California is $154,000 to $286,000. You may also be eligible to receive incentive compensation: bonus, equity, and benefits. Sales positions generally offer a competitive On Target Earnings (OTE) incentive compensation structure. Please note that the salary range is a guideline and compensation may vary based on factors such as qualifications, skill level, competencies and work location. Our benefits programs include: paid vacation and paid holidays, 401(k) plan with employer match, employee stock purchase plan, a variety of medical, dental and vision plan options, and more.