ASIC Design Verification Engineer

This role requires being onsite in San Jose, CA at least 4 days/week.

About the Team

The Common Hardware Group (CHG) creates innovative hardware platforms central to the AI era, powering Cisco’s core Switching, Routing, and Wireless products for organizations globally. Our innovations in silicon, optics, and hardware platforms—like Silicon One—are shaping the technology industry. We're a global team of creative experts, bringing our unique backgrounds and bold ideas to push boundaries and help each other grow. Because full product development—from design to qualification to production—is within our team, we’re able to think differently, experiment more, and work quickly.

Responsibilities

• Set vision and strategy for ASIC verification methodology and execution across multiple programs and product lines.
• Serve as technical authority and mentor for verification teams, fostering technical excellence and innovation.
• Lead architecture and implementation of scalable, reusable verification infrastructure and methodologies.
• Drive cross-functional initiatives to improve verification efficiency, quality, and coverage at scale.
• Influence ASIC architecture and design to enable robust verification and high-quality silicon.
• Serve as subject matter expert and advisor on industry trends, best practices, and new technologies.
• Provide technical leadership in root cause analysis and resolution of complex issues during bring-up and post-silicon validation.

Requirements

• Bachelors + 7 years of related experience, or Masters + 4 years of related experience, or PhD + 1 year of related experience.
• Experience in System Verilog, UVM, and verification methodologies including emulation.
• Experience architecting verification strategies for complex ASIC programs.
• Experience leading verification teams or projects.
• Experience in scripting (Python, Perl) and C/C++ programming language.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in data center, Hyperscalers, or AI Networking technologies.
• Author or contributor to industry standards or best practices in ASIC verification.
• Deep expertise in multiple protocols and large-scale SoC architectures.
• Experience with advanced emulation, prototyping, and formal verification tools at scale.
• Experience with silicon bring-up and post-silicon debug.
• Strong leadership, communication, and mentoring skills.

Why Cisco?

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.

Pay

The starting salary range for this position is $165,000.00 to $241,400.00 for new hires 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 specific locations is listed below:

• New York City Metro Area: $165,000.00 - $277,600.00
• Non-Metro New York State & Washington State: $146,700.00 - $247,000.00

For quota-based sales roles on Cisco’s sales plan, the ranges provided include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.

Benefits

U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco’s plan eligibility rules, which include:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution
• Paid parental leave
• Short and long-term disability coverage
• Basic life insurance
• Grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment for defined periods

Paid time away includes:

• 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
• 1 paid day off for employee’s birthday
• Paid year-end holiday shutdown
• 4 paid days off for personal wellness
• Non-exempt employees receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at a rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees
• Exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program, with no defined limit on vacation time (subject to availability and business limitations)
• 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, with up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward
• Additional paid time away may be requested for critical or emergency family issues
• Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer

For non-sales roles, employees are eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco’s policies. Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, split between quota and non-quota components. For quota-based incentive pay, Cisco typically pays:

• 0.75% of incentive target for each 1% of revenue attainment up to 50% of quota
• 1.5% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 50% and 75%
• 1% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 75% and 100%
• Once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation

For non-quota-based sales performance elements, Cisco may pay 0% up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.