Cadence Design Systems→
Software Engineering Director
ExperiencedOn-siteFull-time
Location
San Jose, CA
Salary
$179k–$332k/yr
Experience
Not specified
Posted
Today
Job Description
Software Engineering Director
Location: SAN JOSE
At Cadence, we hire and develop leaders and innovators who want to make an impact on the world of technology.
Role Overview
Responsible for end-to-end product validation to ensure the solution works reliably in real customer environments. This role operates downstream of Software Testing and Evaluation, focusing on validating full product behavior, interfaces, configurations, and release readiness.
Key Responsibilities
1. Feature & Regression Validation
Validate all product features against specifications for each release candidate
Own regression coverage and identify behavioral drift across releases
Reproduce, triage, and track customer-reported issues through resolution
2. Interface & UX Validation
Test across all user interfaces: TUI, VS Code extension, web UI, and future surfaces
Validate workflows, interactions, and usability across platforms (OS, IDEs, terminals)
3. Environment & Configuration Testing
Validate across deployment environments: AWS, GCP, and on-prem
Ensure functional parity across model providers (e.g., Claude, GPT, Gemini)
Test authentication, licensing, and network/proxy configurations
Maintain a documented support and validation matrix
4. Customer Environment Replication
Build and maintain replicas of key customer environments
Run parallel validation across multiple customer profiles
Keep environments aligned with evolving customer setups
5. Release Readiness & Gating
Define and enforce QA pass/fail criteria for releases
Own validation plans, test checklists, and QA sign-off
Block releases when quality standards are not met
6. Cross-Team Collaboration
Work with Software Testing and Evaluation as downstream validation owner
Route defects to the appropriate teams (Engineering, Testing, Evaluation)
Feed real-world data back into evaluation frameworks
7. QA Infrastructure & Automation
Maintain validation environments, test harnesses, and automation frameworks
Drive automation where cost-effective while preserving critical manual coverage
Ensure validation processes are documented and reproducible
The annual salary range for California is $178,500 to $331,500. You may also be eligible to receive incentive compensation: bonus, equity, and benefits. Sales positions generally offer a competitive On Target Earnings (OTE) incentive compensation structure. Please note that the salary range is a guideline and compensation may vary based on factors such as qualifications, skill level, competencies and work location. Our benefits programs include: paid vacation and paid holidays, 401(k) plan with employer match, employee stock purchase plan, a variety of medical, dental and vision plan options, and more.
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