Technical Lead Engineer — Network Validation & Characterization

Meta's Infrastructure team delivers scalable and reliable custom ASIC solutions to meet Meta's data center needs. Ramping to production and solving data center scaling and deployment challenges requires a systems-based approach to silicon bring-up and validation.The team works on productization: early architecture and design inputs, pre-silicon validation on emulation platforms, first-silicon bring-up, and post-silicon characterization across process, voltage, and temperature corners. We write tests, build bare-metal environments and reusable frameworks that scale from pre-silicon platforms to large fleets of ASICs in the lab, and we build and maintain extensive lab automation to do it at volume and velocity.

Technical Lead Engineer — Network Validation & Characterization Responsibilities:

• Own the end-to-end validation and characterization strategy for Meta custom silicon programs in your domain, from pre-silicon emulation through post-silicon bring-up and PVT characterization
• Define the test plan: measurement and benchmarking methodology, instrumentation, functional and performance coverage, corner coverage across process/voltage/temperature, and pass/fail criteria
• Establish and document best practices for measurement rigor, accuracy, and correlation across bench, emulation, and ATE/production data
• Drive validation of domain feature sets (power or networking) on emulation platforms pre-silicon and on real silicon post-silicon
• Review schematics, power delivery networks, high-speed interface designs, and board/platform configurations with hardware and design teams
• provide early design and debuggability inputs
• Write and review automation and analysis code that scales characterization from a single bench to many units in the lab
• Lead debug of complex cross-stack issues — silicon, firmware, driver, board, thermal, and fabric/switch layers — and drive root cause to closure with design, software, hardware, ODM, and vendor partners
• Provide technical guidance and planning for a team of validation engineers
• mentor engineers and improve standards for data quality and rigor
• Partner with manufacturing, production, and data center teams to transfer characterization learnings into production screens and fleet health monitoring

Minimum Qualifications:

• 12+ years of relevant industry experience
• Demonstrated hands-on validation and characterization experience on complex ASICs, SoCs, NICs, or high-speed interfaces
• Proven experience with PVT (Process / Voltage / Temperature) characterization
• Ability to read and reason about schematics and either power delivery networks or high-speed interface implementations
• Proficiency in Python for test development, lab automation, and/or data analysis
• Hands-on lab experience with domain-relevant instrumentation

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience taking a custom NIC or networking ASIC from first silicon through high-volume production
• Experience working directly with ODMs and silicon/IP vendors
• Hands-on lab experience with domain-relevant instrumentation for Networking - traffic generators, protocol analyzers, high-speed scopes/BERTs, optics and cabling, switches
• plus RDMA (RoCE and/or InfiniBand) at the protocol and debug level, Ethernet performance tooling (iperf, netperf, packet capture and analysis), and both front-end and back-end NICs and their differing traffic and scaling models
• Experience with Linux networking internals, kernel/userspace drivers, and DPDK or verbs-level programming
• Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field
• Familiarity with SerDes tuning, link margining, FEC, and errata characterization
• Experience building large-scale lab automation frameworks and characterization data pipelines
• Experience with AI/HPC back-end fabrics and collective communication traffic patterns

About Meta:

Meta builds technologies that help people connect, find communities, and grow businesses. When Facebook launched in 2004, it changed the way people connect. Apps like Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp further empowered billions around the world. Now, Meta is moving beyond 2D screens toward immersive experiences like augmented and virtual reality to help build the next evolution in social technology. People who choose to build their careers by building with us at Meta help shape a future that will take us beyond what digital connection makes possible today—beyond the constraints of screens, the limits of distance, and even the rules of physics.

Meta is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Meta participates in the E-Verify program in certain locations, as required by law. Please note that Meta may leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies in connection with applications for employment.

Meta is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability, please let us know at [email protected].

$212,000/year to $294,000/year + bonus + equity + benefits

Individual compensation is determined by skills, qualifications, experience, and location. Compensation details listed in this posting reflect the base hourly rate, monthly rate, or annual salary only, and do not include bonus, equity or sales incentives, if applicable. In addition to base compensation, Meta offers benefits. Learn more about benefits at Meta.