Staff Principal Validation Engineer

Arm has built the world’s most pervasive compute architecture, powering computing wherever it happens – from embedded and automotive systems to cloud and data center infrastructure. As Arm continues to grow its presence in server and infrastructure markets, system software plays a critical role in enabling high-quality, production-ready platforms for customers and partners.

This role is part of Arm’s System Solutions software organization. It involves working on software for Arm Neoverse–based platforms. Tasks range from initial verification on pre-silicon platforms to production-quality firmware and software on real silicon. The Validation Lead will provide technical and people leadership for a focus group responsible for proving system readiness, software quality, release confidence, and customer-facing robustness across complex platform deliverables.

We are looking for a staff or principal engineer with strong system software expertise, extensive system-wide knowledge, and a deep passion for quality, validation, and testing. This person will shape how the team validates complex firmware and platform software across the full system, from early pre-silicon environments through silicon bring-up, platform integration, release readiness, and customer-facing use cases.. They will also help grow a validation culture that detects issues early, produces clear evidence, and supports confident delivery.

Job Purpose And Accountabilities Responsibilities

• Set direction and priorities for the validation team, ensuring delivery of high-quality validation plans, testing approaches, release evidence, and system readiness assessments aligned with platform strategy, customer needs, and product achievements. Lead, coach, and develop engineers, enabling delivery through clear goals, effective delegation, and strong technical guidance.
• Own the validation approach across pre-silicon and silicon platforms, including FVP, emulation, FPGA, RTL co-validation, bring-up boards, CRBs, and production-oriented environments. Define what must be validated at each stage, what evidence is required, and how risks are tracked and communicated.
• Remain technically engaged by participating in architecture and design discussions, reviewing validation plans, test coverage, failure analysis, automation approaches, and critical defects. Contribute hands-on when appropriate to guide debug, unblock complex system issues, or improve validation quality.
• Work closely with firmware development teams, QA, release, automation, productization, hardware teams, and customer-facing organizations to ensure coherent validation across the wider platform. Represent validation in technical discussions and reviews, contributing to broader platform-level decisions.
• Drive a quality-first engineering culture where validation is considered early in design and implementation, not only at the end of development. Ensure the team has clear entry and exit criteria, meaningful regression coverage, reproducible results, and strong traceability from requirements to release evidence.
  
  

Required Skills and Experience :

• 14+ years of industry experience building, validating, or delivering complex system software, paired with proven people leadership and a strong track record of delivery.
• Background in firmware, platform software, or low-level system software validation on pre-silicon and silicon platforms, preferably on Arm-based systems, demonstrated through ownership, review, and guidance of complex technical validation strategies.
• Broad system-level understanding across firmware and platform software, with the ability to reason across boot flows, hardware/software interfaces, OS interactions, device initialization, platform services, and production-readiness requirements.
• Strong technical judgment, including assessing validation trade-offs, managing quality risk, prioritizing coverage, and making clear recommendations on release readiness.
• Strong understanding of software validation and quality practices, including test strategy, coverage planning, CI, regression, automation, defect triage, reproducibility, release criteria, and customer-facing quality evidence.
• Strong communication skills and a track record of effective collaboration across teams and sites, especially when driving resolution of complex system-level issues involving multiple engineering groups.
  
  

“Nice To Have” Skills and Experience :

• Experience working on server or infrastructure platforms, including customer- or production-facing environments.
• Understanding of system architecture, preferably Arm, OS fundamentals, bootloaders, firmware interfaces, device drivers, and board bring-up flows.
• Experience with platform compliance or readiness programs such as SystemReady, ACS, firmware conformance, security validation, or customer acceptance testing.
• Experience building or scaling validation teams, validation frameworks, lab automation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, or release-readiness processes.
• Experience working in globally distributed teams.
  
  

In Return:

You will lead a critical validation function dedicated to groundbreaking infrastructure technology. You will influence software quality, system readiness, release assurance, and customer success across Arm’s platform portfolio. You will help build how complex Arm-based systems are validated from early pre-silicon development through to high-standard delivery within a highly skilled global engineering organization!

Accommodations at Arm

At Arm, we want to build extraordinary teams. If you need an adjustment or an accommodation during the recruitment process, please email accommodations@arm.com . To note, by sending us the requested information, you consent to its use by Arm to arrange for appropriate accommodations. All accommodation or adjustment requests will be treated with confidentiality, and information concerning these requests will only be disclosed as necessary to provide the accommodation. Although this is not an exhaustive list, examples of support include breaks between interviews, having documents read aloud, or office accessibility. Please email us about anything we can do to accommodate you during the recruitment process.

Hybrid Working at Arm

Arm’s approach to hybrid working is designed to create a working environment that supports both high performance and personal wellbeing. We believe in bringing people together face to face to enable us to work at pace, whilst recognizing the value of flexibility. Within that framework, we empower groups/teams to determine their own hybrid working patterns, depending on the work and the team’s needs. Details of what this means for each role will be shared upon application. In some cases, the flexibility we can offer is limited by local legal, regulatory, tax, or other considerations, and where this is the case, we will collaborate with you to find the best solution. Please talk to us to find out more about what this could look like for you.

Equal Opportunities at Arm

Arm is an equal opportunity employer, committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal opportunities are available to all applicants and colleagues. We are a diverse organization of dedicated and innovative individuals, and don’t discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

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