Silicon Co-Design Engineer - New College Grad 2026
NVIDIA is hiring a Silicon Co-Design Engineer - New College Grad 2026 in Santa Clara, United States. It pays $116k-$190k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on NVIDIA.
Level's read on this job
- Level rates this role Little AI ●○○○: aI is not part of the work.
- The posting mentions Python, C and JavaScript among its tools and skills.
- Level classes it as a junior role.
- NVIDIA has 2,600+ other open roles on Level.
- Posted within the past two weeks.
AI in this role
Silicon Co-Design Engineer to develop methodologies for silicon characterization, validation, and workload analysis including deep learning.
NVIDIA has continuously reinvented itself over two decades. Our invention of the GPU in 1999 sparked the growth of the PC gaming market, redefined modern computer graphics, and revolutionized parallel computing. More recently, GPU deep learning ignited modern AI — the next era of computing. NVIDIA is a “learning machine” that constantly evolves by adapting to new opportunities that are hard to solve, that only we can tackle, and that matter to the world. This is our life’s work, to amplify human imagination and intelligence. Make the choice, join our diverse team today!
Working at the Silicon Co-design Engineering Team at NVIDIA, you will be responsible for productizing NVIDIA's chips into groundbreaking consumer, professional, server, mobile, and automotive solutions. The qualified candidate should be comfortable in a lab environment and should demonstrate a passion towards creation, execution and improvement of silicon validation plans.
What you’ll be doing:
Develop and implement methodologies to characterize silicon and validate system features on pre-production silicon.
Drive root-causes analysis efforts of hardware failures through lab experimentation and collaboration with other teams within NVIDIA.
Find innovative solutions to sophisticated silicon and system level problems to productize silicon and refine future designs to fine-tune architected features post-silicon.
Analyze workloads like DL/AI, AAA games, Adobe Suite, and Video Conferencing to understand how we can push market leading energy efficiency.
Characterize pre-production silicon fabricated using innovative processes for speed, performance, power, yield, and quality to draw correlation to design.
Design or commission tools on evaluation platforms to automate and optimize characterization, data collection, test case execution, and results analysis.
Analyze workloads to achieve best-in-class energy efficiency and evaluate the return and investment of new techniques and features, including use case benefit and design-for-productization.
What we need to see:
Completing a BS, MS or PhD degree in EE, CE, Systems Engineering or equivalent experience.
Problem solving, debugging, analysis and logical reasoning skills with examples to prove it.
Understanding of digital design, circuit analysis, algorithms, computer architecture, BIOS, drivers, and software applications.
Strong programming skills in one or more of Python, JavaScript, C/C++
Ways to stand out from the crowd:
Familiarity with statistical methods, tools for data analysis, and analyzing large datasets to draw actionable conclusions, possibly applying deep learning techniques.
Knowledgeable in signal integrity, timing analysis, fault analysis, sampling, computer architecture, filters.
Familiar with lab tools (oscilloscopes and logic analyzers).
Experience in Database and Web Development is a plus!
With competitive salaries and a generous benefits package, NVIDIA is widely considered to be one of the technology world’s most desirable employers. We welcome you join our team with some of the most hard-working people in the world working together to promote rapid growth. Are you passionate about becoming a part of a best-in-class team supporting the latest in GPU and AI technology? If so, we want to hear from you.
Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and other objective job-related factors. The expected base salary ranges for this position are:116,000 USD – 189,750 USD for Level 2; and 136,000 USD – 218,500 USD for Level 3.
You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.
Applications for this job will be accepted at least until November 3, 2026.This posting is for an existing vacancy.
NVIDIA uses AI tools in its recruiting processes.
NVIDIA is committed to fostering an inclusive work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. As we highly value diversity in our current and future employees, we do not discriminate (including in our hiring and promotion practices) on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by law.How we rate this
Silicon Co-Design Engineer - New College Grad 2026 at NVIDIA rates 20 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Little AI. AI is not part of the work.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- Tell me about a project where silicon validation was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where hardware debugging was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where workload analysis was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where energy efficiency was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where digital design was part of your work. What did you do?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Silicon Validation, Hardware Debugging, Workload Analysis, Energy Efficiency, and Digital Design. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
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