Principal Engineer, Memory Systems Engineering

Company Description

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.

Job Description

About The Position:

You will be part of the Firmware Verification Team that designs and develops white box and grey box tests to verify firmware of storage systems for AI workloads. You will be working closely with product architects and firmware engineers to create a comprehensive firmware verification test. In this role, you will be technically leading a team, contributing to developing test strategies, executing validation plans, and ensuring the robustness of firmware that enables AI computation near data, directly on Edge AI storage inference accelerators and devices.  

Key Responsibilities:

• Validate firmware for edge AI inference accelerators and storage devices with focus on AI framework integration (TensorFlow Lite, ONNX Runtime)  
• Design and execute test plans for low-level firmware functions, including bootloaders, memory management, task scheduling, and AI accelerators  
• Validate AI accelerator performance metrics including throughput, latency, and power efficiency for neural processing workloads  
• Interface with cross-functional teams (firmware, ASIC, hardware, systems) to isolate and debug firmware issues at the hardware/software boundary  
• Collaborate closely with firmware engineers & architects on product architecture and designs to define the comprehensive verification plan to deliver a high quality product to customers on time 
• Design, Develop and Integrate the white box and gray box tests on SSD products in roadmap inline with latest methodologies 
• Conduct test plan reviews and code reviews to ensure the tests are scalable and meeting the requirements 
• Contribute to continuous integration pipelines for automated testing and validation  
• Analyze test results, generate detailed bug reports, and drive resolutions with engineering teams  
• Document findings, contribute to root cause corrective action (RCCA) reports, and ensure closure of high-priority issues

Exciting opportunity to work on cutting-edge NAND Flash technology for AI infrastructure.

Research and develop next-generation of products in the Emerging Technology Solutions group.

Essential Duties And Responsibilities:

• Define NAND Flash device handling related systems algorithms for AI workloads.
• Define and communicate NAND Flash requirements to various functions of Memory teams to meet systems specs.
• Define ASIC requirements for upcoming new NAND Flash based chips and design systems algorithms.
• Develop and maintain a System modeling tool for power, performance, and cost. 
• Study the trade-offs for Power, performance, cost and schedule. Clearly able to articulate the finding to cross-functional forums and to the higher management.  
• Lead discussion of new modes for next generation of NAND Flash or new operation methods that can make differentiating products
• Work with Architecture and Firmware team on detailed implementation and verification plan.
• Monitor NAND readiness and work with Product test teams on NAND testing and screening methods
• Work with the validation team on drive-level testing, debugging, failure analysis and qualification
• Prepare and present reports detailing the status of development, FA reports, Qual failure reports and customer qual fail reports.

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor's/Master's/PHD in EE, ECE , E&I , VLSI or other relevant course
• Overall 10+(BS)/7+ (MS)/5+ (PHD) years of working experience in NAND flash based systems or relevant systems design

Preferred:

• Knowledge of programming in high-level languages (e.g. C, C++, Python) is a plus.
• Knowledge of PICe, DDR interfaces is a plus.

Skills:

• A clear understanding of technical and logistic challenges that must be met to deliver industry-leading products or consumer electronics platforms
• Ability to empower and lead a multi-functional team to tackle sophisticated System/HW/FW integration challenges
• Excellent verbal, written and presentation communications skills, organizational capabilities, and collaborative and interpersonal skills
• Ability to multi-task and demonstrate excellent problem solving 

Additional Information

Sandisk thrives on the power and potential of diversity. As a global company, we believe the most effective way to embrace the diversity of our customers and communities is to mirror it from within. We believe the fusion of various perspectives results in the best outcomes for our employees, our company, our customers, and the world around us. We are committed to an inclusive environment where every individual can thrive through a sense of belonging, respect and contribution.

Sandisk is committed to offering opportunities to applicants with disabilities and ensuring all candidates can successfully navigate our careers website and our hiring process. Please contact us at jobs.accommodations@sandisk.com to advise us of your accommodation request. In your email, please include a description of the specific accommodation you are requesting as well as the job title and requisition number of the position for which you are applying.