Senior Emulation Engineer

The application window is expected to close on 2/30/2026.

This is an onsite role and will require working out of the Milpitas/San Jose office location.

The Common Hardware Group (CHG) delivers the silicon, optics, and hardware platforms for Cisco's core Switching, Routing, and Wireless products. We design the networking hardware for Enterprises and Service Providers of various sizes, the Public Sector, and Non-Profit Organizations across the world. Cisco Silicon One (#Cisco Silicon One ) is the only unifying silicon architecture in the market that enables customers to deploy the best-of-breed silicon from Top of Rack (TOR) switches all the way through web scale data centers and across service providers, enterprise networks, and data centers with a fully unified routing and switching portfolio.

Come join us and take part in shaping Cisco's ground-breaking solutions by designing, developing, and testing some of the most complex ASICs being developed in the industry.

You will work with Cisco’s best-in-class switching solution team. Our team is responsible for driving integration of the Nexus systems and ACI with software, including Open Stack, Docker, and Open vSwitch, to help our customers build multitenant clouds.

• Develop state-of-the-art emulation environments that will be used to evaluate the performance and functionality of multi-terabit systems.
• Developing emulation infrastructure using C/C++ and TCL
• As a team member, work closely with the design, DV, power, and post-silicon diagnostic teams.
• Assist with test plan design, test implementation, and debugging during the pre-silicon emulation process.
• Develop tests to generate complex traffic, and performance scenarios to catch potential post-Silicon issues during the Pre-Silicon phase.
• Work with leading emulation vendors to troubleshoot issues.

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in EE (Electrical & Electronics) or CE (Computer Engineering) with 8+ years of relevant experience.
• Prior emulation experience on platforms such as Palladium, Veloce, or Zebu as well as experience with compilation, debug, performance testing.
• Prior experience with RTL development for Emulation prototypes.
• Prior experience with C/C++ and TCL infrastructure development.
• Prior experience with System debug tools like gdb, waveform debuggers.

• Experience with scripting programs (e.g., Python, Perl or similar)
• Prior experience with UVM and System Verilog.
• Post Silicon functional validation or debugging experience is a plus.
• Experience with protocols e.g. PCie, I2C, Ethernet packet headers, Ethernet protocol is preferred.

At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.

Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere.

We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.

The starting salary range posted for this position is $ to $ and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits.

Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.

U.S. employees…