Hardware Verification Engineer

About the role

PQShield is looking for an Experienced Verification Engineer to expand our cryptographic hardware IP team. Candidates should hold a degree in Electronic Engineering/Computer Science or equivalent. We hope that you have at least 7 years of experience, but also an open, research-oriented mindset.

PQShield has been establshed since 2018, so you would be directly working with the founders and inventors of this deep tech startup. However the technology is already a couple of years in the making, its feasibility having been established, funding secured, and it has a clear path to market. This is a great opportunity to make career progress and to get a head start in a rapidly expanding segment of the semiconductor industry (Post-Quantum Cryptography and RISC-V).

Our IP components come together as a RISC-V MCU based Sub-system with advanced (post-quantum) cryptography algorithm support and security features.

What you’ll be doing

• Continuous improvement of our verification methodology.
• Definition and execution of IP block and subsystem level verification plans.
• Creation of reliable, reusable and excellently structured testbenches for subsystem and IP block level verification.
• Hands-on project design/verification involvement, including ownership of verification projects from beginning to end.
• Feedback to design engineers and architects on implementation and specification quality and completeness.

Required Skills and Qualifications

• A commitment to high quality engineering in all areas of their work, including advocating for the best long-term solutions over the easiest or quickest.
• Experience in all stages of the verification lifecycle including verification planning & requirements extraction, directed and constrained random test definition and implementation, Functional and code coverage analysis.
• Formal verification and verification qualification techniques, including experience driving new formal verification flows where they are a good fit for the design.
• Excellent knowledge of object oriented programming (OOP) design patterns.
• Experience with standard commercial EDA Verification Tooling flows.
• Integration of SystemVerilog UVM verification and assertion based IPs from EDA vendors.
• Knowledge of common bus protocols (e.g. AMBA AXI4, AHB).
• Experience verifying hardware/software co-designs.
• Confidence in debugging RTL simulations and testbench issues.
• Degree or equivalent in Electronics/Computer Science or other related discipline.

Specific Technologies You Are Confident Using

• Testbench design and implementation using SystemVerilog UVM.
• SystemVerilog – SVA (SystemVerilog Assertions)
• Version control using Git.
• Writing System and subsystem level tests in C, using CMake as a build system.
• Excellent skills building and maintaining Python programs and libraries to implement verification flows.
• Confidence using tools like Bash, TCL, CMake and Makefiles safely and sensibly.

Preferred Skills and Qualifications

• Experience debugging gate level simulations.
• Experience verifying security properties, and/or cryptographic IPs.
• Knowledge of Industry standard SoC Security Architectures
• Knowledge of tamper resistance and/or power side-channel security countermeasures
• Experience working on secure element or smart cards designs.
• Experience using Gitlab CI, or otherwise principles of continuous integration and testing.

Some of the perks of working with us:

• Unparalleled opportunities to learn and accelerated career development.
• A collaborative, team environment with people who truly love what they do.
• Competitive salary and share option scheme.
• Flexible and hybrid working, and a working from home budget.
• Private health insurance for yourself and your family.
• 25 days annual leave (plus bank holidays and two wellness weeks).
• 50% gym membership discount.
• The chance to work with a spirited, smart, and friendly team!