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 router, the fabric that carries requests and data between the cores, memory and the rest of the chip. Here the challenge is traffic: every request must reach the right place, in the right order, without deadlock, even when all cores push at full speed.

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.
• http://B.Sc. or http://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.