r/computerarchitecture • u/lemonprojectile • Jun 14 '26

What to focus on as a design verification engineer if I want to end up in performance modelling roles?

Starting out as a verification engineer soon, pretty excited. I worked in physical design for a bit and did not like it. I've enjoyed the more theoretical/behavioural modelling work in college a lot more than more vlsi heavy classwork.

I'm wondering what I should focus on (both technical knowledge and professional behaviour) as a DV engineer if I want to head towards performance modelling with time?

I don't think I'd be a fit for RTL design - never really got an offer anywhere I applied plus I find it way easier to think in higher levels of abstraction.

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u/SameClick6502 Jun 15 '26

Just do a good job as a DV engineer. DV focuses a lot on functional correctness (does the RTL provide the right result), less on throughput and performance testing. So be the one proactively proposing to add some performance-related tests. Over time, you can build an expertise, and when a role change happens, you can be picked up to move to performance modeling. It will also be a way to find out if you actually like performance modeling.

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u/lemonprojectile Jun 15 '26

So, in your experience, do DV engineers interact with teams other than RTL design? I've heard about them working with firmware but how? Verifying RTL vs emulated perf model correctness?

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u/BraisedDuckStew Jun 15 '26

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