Altera · San Francisco
Hardware & Electrical
This role offers an excellent opportunity to build expertise in FPGA platforms and embedded systems validation.
We are seeking a motivated Firmware Validation Engineer with experience or strong interest in validating FPGA-based embedded systems. The successful candidate will contribute to validating firmware, software, drivers, and platform functionality across pre-silicon and post-silicon environments. You will work closely with firmware, hardware, software, and validation teams to develop and execute tests that help ensure product quality and reliability.
This role focuses on validating customer use cases and real-world system behaviour by verifying that hardware, firmware, operating systems, drivers, and applications function correctly together. You will gain hands-on experience with FPGA platforms, embedded software validation, automation frameworks, and platform-level testing methodologies.
The successful candidate will be part of the Altera Software and IP Solutions (SIPS) Team.
Why This Role Matters
Validation helps ensure that products perform reliably in both laboratory and customer environments. As a Firmware Validation Engineer, you will contribute to the quality and robustness of FPGA-based solutions by helping identify issues early, improving test coverage, and supporting successful product releases.
This role provides an excellent foundation for career growth in FPGA technologies, embedded systems, platform validation, and firmware engineering.
Key Responsibilities
Component, System and User Acceptance Validation
Execute validation plans and test cases for firmware, platform, and system-level functionality.
Review product requirements and specifications to understand expected system behavior.
Develop and maintain test procedures and test documentation.
Design and implement automated test cases under guidance from senior engineers.
Execute functional, regression, integration, stress, and negative testing.
Validate customer workflows and real-world usage scenarios on FPGA platforms.
Assist in expanding test coverage based on newly developed features and customer requirements.
Platform and Driver Validation
Validate FPGA platform functionality across Windows and Linux operating systems.
Execute installation, upgrade, and compatibility testing for FPGA software packages and drivers.
Perform functional validation of Windows device drivers and associated user-space applications.
Verify driver interactions with FPGA hardware, firmware, and operating system services.
Execute plug-and-play, reboot, recovery, and error-handling test scenarios.
Validate system behavior across different Windows versions, hardware configurations, and software releases.
Assist with performance, reliability, and stability testing of platform software and drivers.
Collect logs and debug information to support issue investigation.
Debug and Root Cause Analysis
Reproduce and document reported issues using established debugging methodologies.
Analyze test failures and collect debug data.
Work with firmware, hardware, software, and validation engineers to investigate problems.
Track defects and validate fixes.
Support root-cause analysis activities under the guidance of senior team members.
Automation and Infrastructure
Develop and maintain test automation scripts using Python or other scripting languages.
Enhance automated regression suites and validation workflows.
Support test execution infrastructure, data collection, and reporting tools.
Assist in maintaining test platforms, laboratory environments, and equipment.
Contribute to continuous validation and automation initiatives.
Qualifications
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
3-5 years of experience in software, firmware, embedded systems, platform validation, or test development.
Fundamental understanding of embedded systems, microcontrollers, SoCs, and firmware concepts.
Familiarity with software validation and debugging techniques.
Experience with Python scripting and basic programming knowledge in C or C++.
Familiarity with Windows and Linux operating systems.
Knowledge of version control tools such as Git and issue tracking tools such as Jira.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
Good written and verbal communication skills.
In addition to these skills, one or more of the following skills will be an added advantage
One or more of the following would be advantageous:
Experience with FPGA-based systems or FPGA development tools.
Exposure to platform validation, driver validation, or operating system testing.
Familiarity with Windows Device Manager, driver installation, and hardware enumeration concepts.
Basic understanding of PCIe, USB, Ethernet, or other hardware interfaces.
Experience developing automated test frameworks.
Exposure to Linux driver or kernel-level testing.
Understanding of security concepts such as secure boot, authentication, or cryptographic fundamentals.
Experience using test and debug tools such as logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, or debuggers.
Additional Skills that Could Help in Platform & Windows Driver Validation
Validate FPGA board enumeration and detection across Windows systems.
Verify driver installation, signing, upgrade, rollback, and uninstallation scenarios.
Validate FPGA configuration/programming flows through Windows-based tools.
Execute suspend/resume, hibernate, reboot, and hot-plug testing.
Validate interaction between FPGA drivers, firmware, and user applications.
Perform multi-release compatibility testing across Windows OS versions.
Support customer issue reproduction.
Assist in developing automated platform and driver validation suites.