Digital Design Verification Engineer in Bristol

About OLIX AI is growing faster than any technology in history and the explosion in demand has created a massive infrastructure gap; we can no longer build chips or power stations fast enough to keep up. The industry is still leaning on a ten-year-old hardware blueprint that has reached its limit. A new paradigm that is faster and more efficient will be the biggest economic opportunity of the next century and create the most important company of the next decade. OLIX is building this next paradigm; the Optical Tensor Processing Unit (OTPU) achieves performance and energy efficiency that is impossible to match from existing chips.

The Role We are seeking highly skilled and motivated Senior / Staff Digital Verification Engineers with a strong background in CMOS digital design and verification to take ownership of the functional correctness of high-speed, real-time data-processing silicon—from early algorithm modelling through verified RTL, sign-off, and silicon bring-up. You will join a multidisciplinary group creating groundbreaking OTPUs where digital, optical, and mixed-signal domains intersect. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in digital verification methodologies, a solid understanding of hardware architecture, and a passion for building provably correct, high-performance systems that underpin breakthrough AI hardware.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end verification of high-throughput digital pipelines supporting multi-GSPS input rates, continuous streaming data paths, deep pipelining, and robust hand-shaking in advanced CMOS nodes.
• Develop and maintain comprehensive verification environments using SystemVerilog/UVM, including constrained-random testing, coverage closure, and regression automation.
• Define and implement assertion-based verification strategies for control logic, data-path correctness, CDC/RDC, and protocol compliance.
• Apply formal verification techniques (property checking, assertions, equivalence checking) to complement simulation-based verification and accelerate bug discovery.
• Model and validate algorithms using MATLAB/Simulink or Python, ensuring functional equivalence from algorithmic models through RTL and gate-level sign-off.
• Support FPGA prototyping and silicon bring-up by developing targeted test cases, debug strategies, and post-silicon validation plans.
• Collaborate closely with digital design, optical-hardware, mixed-signal, and software teams to ensure correct integration across clock domains, interfaces, and firmware abstractions.
• Analyse verification results to identify root causes, drive design fixes, and improve verification efficiency and reuse.
• Contribute to verification methodology development, documentation, and design/verification reviews; mentor junior engineers where appropriate.

Skills & Experience

• 5+ years of hands-on experience in digital verification for high-performance ASICs or SoCs.
• Ownership of verification for at least one complex block or subsystem processing continuous real-time data streams.
• Strong proficiency in SystemVerilog, assertions (SVA), and modern verification methodologies (e.g. UVM, Cocotb).
• Proven experience verifying designs operating in GHz-class clock domains, including CDC/RDC analysis.
• Familiarity with industry-standard EDA flows: RTL simulation, formal verification, linting, CDC/RDC, STA, power-intent (UPF/CPF), and gate-level simulation.
• Experience verifying high-speed IP such as SerDes, DDR/HBM, PCIe, Ethernet, or similar interfaces.
• Proficiency with MATLAB/Simulink or Python/NumPy for algorithm modelling, fixed-point analysis, and test-vector generation.
• Solid grounding in digital design principles, computer architecture, DSP fundamentals, and semiconductor basics.
• Clear communicator who collaborates effectively across disciplines and is comfortable operating in a fast-moving, evolving environment.

Nice to have

• Tape-out experience at 22 nm or below.
• Deep hands-on experience with formal verification methodologies, including property decomposition, and coverage-driven formal on tools such as Jasper.
• Exposure to coherent optical links or photonic-electronic co-design.
• Familiarity with AI/ML workloads, systolic arrays, or tensor-processing architectures.
• Expertise in arithmetic pipeline verification.
• Expertise in processor and ISA verification.
• Contributions to open-source RTL, verification frameworks, or FPGA platforms.

Compensation & Equity

• Competitive Salary: £125,000 - £180,000, commensurate with your experience, skills, and location.
• Equity & Ownership: Meaningful stock options. You’re not just joining the mission; you’re owning a piece of it.
• Proximity Bonus: We value your time. To minimise your commute and maximise your life, we offer a £24k annual Living-Local Bonus if your residence is within 20 minutes of the office.

Health & Wellbeing

• Premium Healthcare: Comprehensive BUPA medical and dental cover, including Medical History Disregarded (MHD), for complete peace of mind.
• Time Off: 25 days of annual leave, plus all UK bank holidays.

The Workspace & Tech

• Elite Hardware: M4 Macs come as standard, with M4 Pro upgrades for our engineering team. We will provide whatever you need to do your best work.
• Optimal Environment: High-spec noise-cancelling headphones and a fully ergonomic workstation designed for deep focus.
• Rapid Prototyping: Access to our high-performance 3D printing lab for work, experimentation, and personal creative projects.

Life at the Office

• Chef-prepared meals: if you need to work late.
• Caffeine on Us: We’ve got you covered with a tab at our favourite local coffee shop.

Relocation & Global Mobility

• Visa Sponsorship: We hire the best in the world. We offer full UK and international visa sponsorship.
• Seamless Relocation: Whether you’re moving across the country or across the globe, our dedicated relocation partner provides funding and concierge support to get you settled.

Due to U.S. export control regulations, candidates’ eligibility to work at OLIX depends on their most recent citizenship or permanent residency status. We are generally unable to consider applicants whose most recent citizenship or permanent residence is in certain restricted countries (currently including Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Russia, Belarus, China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Venezuela). Applicants who have subsequently obtained citizenship or permanent residency in another country not subject to these restrictions may still be eligible.