Principal Engineer, System Design Verification Engineering

Sandisk • Milpitas, CA

5h

About The Position

Sandisk understands how people and businesses consume data and we relentlessly innovate to deliver solutions that enable today’s needs and tomorrow’s next big ideas. With a rich history of groundbreaking innovations in Flash and advanced memory technologies, our solutions have become the beating heart of the digital world we’re living in and that we have the power to shape. Sandisk meets people and businesses at the intersection of their aspirations and the moment, enabling them to keep moving and pushing possibility forward. We do this through the balance of our powerhouse manufacturing capabilities and our industry-leading portfolio of products that are recognized globally for innovation, performance and quality. Sandisk has two facilities recognized by the World Economic Forum as part of the Global Lighthouse Network for advanced 4IR innovations. These facilities were also recognized as Sustainability Lighthouses for breakthroughs in efficient operations. With our global reach, we ensure the global supply chain has access to the Flash memory it needs to keep our world moving forward. Essential Duties and Responsibilities: We’re looking for an experienced Principal Engineer to lead complex, cross‑platform system validation and interoperability efforts for our next‑generation NVMe SSD products. You will shape technical direction within the group, architect scalable validation strategies, and drive engineering excellence across adjacent teams (firmware, hardware, QA, tools/automation). This role combines deep technical expertise with hands‑on leadership, designing robust test architectures, elevating standards, and mentoring engineers to deliver high‑impact, customer‑grade quality at scale.

Requirements

• BS/MS in EE/CE/CS or related field with 10+ years in SSD validation, platform integration, or storage system engineering.
• Deep expertise in: NVMe command/admin flows, queues, error‑recovery PCIe link behavior, LTSSM, training, ASPM, surprise/hot removal Linux (blk‑mq, IO scheduler, kern logs) and Windows storage paths Server‑class BIOS/UEFI, ACPI, power/thermal states, crash dump flows
• Robust hands‑on experience with fio, multi‑threaded stress patterns, and high‑complexity system workloads.
• Automation proficiency with Python (preferred), Bash, and PowerShell.

Nice To Haves

• Prior ownership of system‑level integration or interop validation for enterprise/cloud SSDs or server platforms.
• Knowledge of FTDC frameworks, telemetry analysis, automated RCA workflows, or system‑level coverage design.
• Familiarity with validation KPIs such as DPPM, escape metrics, and system‑level coverage modeling.
• Experience debugging across firmware, PCIe electrical, drivers, OS internals, and system microcode interactions.

Responsibilities

• Lead system integration strategy for functional, stress, and interoperability validation across diverse platforms and operating systems.
• Develop scalable automation for system‑level workflows, including NVMe functional tests, reset/boot flows, PCIe behaviors, and telemetry/FTDC collection.
• Drive system‑level triage by identifying failure domains, improving debug repeatability, and accelerating root-cause isolation.
• Collaborate across FW, HW, Validation, Tools, and Architecture to ensure system behaviors and issues inform design and release decisions.
• Enhance productivity by improving test coverage efficiency, reducing execution cycle time, and optimizing platform readiness.
• Introduce new methodologies for system interop, workload generation, stress scenarios, and validation quality gating.
• Mentor engineers, uplift technical practices, and strengthen system‑level engineering rigor.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level