Block Verification Technical Lead
You will own the verification of one key block of our coherent AI system, leading a team of 3–4 engineers, to tape-out sign-off.
Your scope covers the system blocks around the RISC-V cores: the ACLINT and APLIC interrupt blocks, the barriers block, and the components needed to boot Linux. These blocks turn cores into a working system: if one of them is wrong, nothing boots.
About Semidynamics
Semidynamics builds memory-centric AI inference silicon in Barcelona. Our chips combine RISC-V CPUs, Vector and Tensor Units and our Gazzillion Misses™ memory engine, so that large language models are never starved of data. In April 2026, SK hynix, one of the world's leading memory makers, made a strategic investment in the company.
You will not inherit a mature flow at a company of 10,000 people. You will shape it, with a team you lead and a design team one desk away.
What you will do
Own the verification of your block
Maintain the block verification plan, aligned with the overall strategy set by the Verification Lead.
Maintain, run and update the block testbench in UVM: agents, reference model, scoreboards, functional coverage and assertions.
Drive the block to sign-off: coverage closure, bug trends.
Lead your team
Lead a team of 3–4 verification engineers: split the work, review testbenches and tests, unblock people.
Mentor your engineers, make decisions.
Keep your regressions and CI healthy, and push automation.
Work with design and the other leads
Review and understand the block microarchitecture with the RTL designers.
Review the interface contracts with the neighbouring blocks: what your block assumes, and who checks it.
Deliver agents, checkers and coverage that the other teams reuse at system level.
Report status and risks clearly to the Verification Lead.
Why this role is different
Hands-on and leader at once. You still write testbenches and debug failures, decide the next scenario to implement, while you grow a team around you.
A block you really own. You know it better than anyone, down to the last corner case, and your sign-off decides if it is ready.
The RTL authors are next to you. You can challenge a microarchitecture choice at the whiteboard, before it becomes a bug.
A clear next step. Leading a block team is the natural path towards leading verification for a whole system.
What you bring
Must have
6+ years of hands-on design verification, with at least one block taken to tape-out.
Expert SystemVerilog and UVM: you have architected a block testbench from scratch, including the reference model and scoreboards.
Strong functional coverage and assertion-based verification (SVA).
Technical leadership: you have written a verification plan, driven coverage closure and guided other engineers.
Deep knowledge of at least one of: cache controllers, coherent interconnects, or CPU cores.
Working knowledge of SoC bus protocols: AXI, CHI.
Experience with a major simulator and debugger (Questa, VCS or Xcelium; Visualizer or Verdi).
Scripting (Python, Bash) and experience running regressions.
B.Sc. or M.Sc. in Electrical or Computer Engineering, or equivalent experience.
Fluent English.
Nice to have
RISC-V, CPU cluster or AI accelerator verification.
Cache coherence protocols (CHI, ACE, MESI/MOESI) and memory ordering.
CI infrastructure (GitLab).
First experience managing people.
How you work
You always ask: "Who/what actually checks this?"
You keep inventing new scenarios to find the next bug before it finds us.
You like to mentor, and you enjoy seeing engineers on your team grow.
Why Semidynamics
Work at one of Europe's most promising deep-tech semiconductor scale-ups, from silicon to systems.
Office in Barcelona city centre: 4 days on site, 1 day from home.
1 week per year to work from anywhere in the world.
Competitive package.
A collaborative, technical culture that values direct ownership and clear thinking.
Barcelona itself: the sea, the mountains and a strong engineering community nearby.
- Department
- Silicon Engineering
- Location
- Barcelona
- Employment type
- Full-time