Principal Validation Engineer

Renesas is a global semiconductor leader shaping the backbone of next-generation automotive, industrial, cloud, and IoT innovation. With over $9.3 billion in annual revenue (2024) and a world-class team of 22,700+ employees, Renesas operates at scale while retaining the agility to drive category-defining breakthroughs. The company’s footprint spans more than 30 countries, enabling deep customer proximity and a uniquely global innovative engine. As Japan’s semiconductor powerhouse and a top global player in microcontrollers, analog, and power technologies, Renesas delivers real-world impact across EVs, smart factories, renewable energy infrastructure, and edge intelligence. For ambitious problem-solvers who want to work on meaningful, systems-level challenges with huge industry leverage, Renesas offers the scale, stability, and strategic clarity of a market leader-paired with the transformative momentum of a company reinventing how the world computes, connects, and electrifies.

Renesas has a growing presence in India with HC approaching 1000+ and significant presence with active government and university collaboration as well as OSAT footprint (JV with CG India). With the growing importance of India as a market (Growing semiconductor market and government goals / mandates of localization needs) and talent hub, our division’s (India for India) mission is to grow India market. We aspire to create products (SoCs, Software, Power and Analog chips etc) which serve needs for local market. Renesas is a leading electronics supplier globally, and this is a unique opportunity to directly influence the future products which will be offered to our customers in a new, fast growing and large Indian market with specific needs and applications.

Renesas is looking for a Principal SoC Validation Engineer, to redefine how SoCs are built and validated-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 Embedded 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.
• 15+ 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 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-B 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. With a global team of over 21,000 engineers and problem solvers in more than 30 countries, we offer the opportunity to work on world-leading technology for Automotive, Industrial, Infrastructure, and IoT, shaping a safer, healthier, greener, and smarter future.

At Renesas, TAGIE is our culture, grounded in being Transparent, Agile, Global, Innovative, and Entrepreneurial. It shapes how we work, grow and deliver on our purpose together. This collaborative spirit and mindset drive our semiconductor technology to transform industries and impact millions of lives.

We believe in rewarding our employees with a competitive benefits package alongside their salary. More information will be provided during the hiring process.

Are you ready to join our team and shape the future with us?

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.