Staff Validation Engineer - Power
About this role
Company Overview
Ambiq is on a mission to enable intelligence everywhere — powering the AI edge revolution with the world's lowest-power semiconductor solutions.
Built on our proprietary sub- and near-threshold technology, our chips deliver multi-fold improvements in energy efficiency without costly process scaling. Since 2010, we've shipped over 300 million units to customers building smarter wearables, medical devices, IoT products, and AI-powered edge applications.
Our cross-functional teams span design, research, development, production, marketing, sales, and operations across Austin, Hsinchu, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Singapore. We move fast, tackle hard problems, and create space for people to grow through complex, meaningful work that shapes the future of technology.
We're looking for self-motivated, creative problem-solvers who are eager to push technological limits and make a real impact in energy efficiency.
At Ambiq, we live by five values: Innovate. Collaborate. Focus. Learn. Achieve.
If that's you, join us — the intelligence everywhere revolution starts here.
This role will be on-site 5 days a week in NW Austin.
Scope
The Staff Power Validation Engineer is a senior technical individual contributor responsible for defining and executing power validation strategies for Ambiq's next-generation ultra-low-power SoCs.
Reporting to the Senior Manager, Silicon Validation Engineering, this role serves as the technical expert for post-silicon power validation, characterization, and optimization. Working closely with Architecture, Design, Verification, Firmware, Systems Engineering, and Product Engineering, the Staff Engineer will develop scalable validation methodologies, create advanced automation frameworks, and help deliver industry-leading power efficiency across multiple product families.
This position combines deep hands-on technical expertise with cross-functional technical leadership, influencing product architecture, validation methodology, and power optimization throughout the silicon development lifecycle.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead power validation, characterization, and optimization for complex mixed-signal SoCs and edge AI devices.
- Develop validation methodologies, automation frameworks, and reusable software tools for power analysis and characterization.
- Design and execute validation plans covering system-, subsystem-, and block-level power behavior.
- Develop embedded firmware and automation software for silicon bring-up, current profiling, and data collection.
- Partner with Architecture, Design, Verification, Firmware, Systems, and Product Engineering teams to optimize power performance and resolve complex silicon issues.
- Design validation hardware and specify laboratory equipment for precision power measurement and ultra-low-current characterization.
- Analyze power behavior across operating modes, sleep states, AI workloads, and peripheral activity.
- Mentor engineers and provide technical leadership on power validation best practices.
Required Qualifications
- BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field.
- 5+ years of experience in silicon validation, power characterization, or low-power SoC development.
- Strong understanding of mixed-signal SoCs, embedded systems, and advanced power management architectures.
- Experience developing validation automation using Python, TCL, C/C++, or similar languages.
- Hands-on experience with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, source measurement units (SMUs), picoammeters, and other precision measurement equipment.
- Experience with embedded firmware development and ARM-based SoCs.
- Proven ability to analyze and debug complex hardware, firmware, and system-level power issues.
- Strong communication and collaboration skills with cross-functional engineering teams.
- Experience validating ultra-low-power SoCs and edge AI devices.
- Familiarity with AI accelerators, DSP architectures, and heterogeneous compute systems.
- Experience with dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS), multiple power domains, retention modes, and advanced low-power techniques.
- Experience with statistical characterization, production correlation, and silicon debug.
- Experience developing reusable validation infrastructure and laboratory automation.
Must be currently authorized to work in the United States for any employer. We do not sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas (now or in the future) for this role.
Company at a glance
Ambiq® was founded in 2010 on the simple yet powerful notion that extremely low-power semiconductors are the key to the future of electronics. Through the use of pioneering ultra-low power technology, innovative companies around the world are developing differentiated solutions that reduce or eliminate the need for batteries, reduce overall system power and maximize industrial design flexibility.
Our mission is to enable intelligence (artificial intelligence (AI) and beyond) everywhere by delivering the lowest power semiconductor solutions. We enable our customers to deliver artificial intelligence compute at the edge where power consumption challenges are the most profound. Our technology innovations, built on the patented and proprietary subthreshold power optimized technology (SPOT), fundamentally deliver a multi-fold improvement in power consumption over traditional semiconductor designs. We’ve powered over 270 million devices today.
As we see the shift in devices move from “smart” to “AI,” our technology and solutions have evolved to accommodate the power requirements needed to enable feature rich devices that are always on, high performing, secure, accurate, energy efficient, and just as important practical. Our leadership in powering devices made for edge AI has helped technology innovators across wearable, smart home and buildings, industrial, healthcare, and other sectors deliver intelligent devices that can do more while consuming less.
For more information, visit www.ambiq.com.
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