Senior Software Engineer – Benchmarking, Performance & Competitive Analysis

Company Description At Renesas, we are more than just a semiconductor company; we are the engine behind a "safer, smarter, and more sustainable" future. Headquartered locally in the heart of San Jose, our Silicon Valley team is at the forefront of innovation in Automotive, Industrial, Infrastructure, and IoT technologies. By blending cutting-edge embedded processing with world-class analog and power expertise, we develop "Winning Combinations" that power billions of intelligent devices globally.

Joining our San Jose office means joining a collaborative, forward-thinking environment where your work directly impacts the next generation of AI-driven infrastructure and green energy solutions. Job Description We are seeking a Senior Benchmarking Engineer to establish and lead our benchmarking and competitive analysis program in Austin. This role will drive interface benchmarking as well as comprehensive solution-level benchmarking covering industrial networking, latency, bandwidth, graphics performance, and AI workloads.

The insights generated by this role will directly inform product positioning, roadmap decisions, and customer engagements against competing silicon solutions. Key Responsibilities Design and execute systematic benchmarking programs comparing Renesas solutions against competitor platforms Develop standardized, repeatable, and defensible benchmark methodologies for fair cross-vendor comparisons Conduct interface benchmarking across key connectivity standards (Ethernet, PCIe, USB, DDR memory interfaces, serial interfaces, etc.) Perform solution-level benchmarking across application domains: Industrial Networking: TSN, PROFINET, EtherCAT, Modbus, OPC UA throughput and determinism Latency & Bandwidth: Real-time interrupt latency, memory bandwidth, network throughput characterization Graphics Performance: GPU/rendering benchmarks, display pipeline, OpenGL/Vulkan workloads AI Benchmarks: NPU/DSP/CPU inference performance (MLPerf, common ML models, energy efficiency) Build automated benchmark frameworks and test harnesses to enable continuous regression tracking Author detailed competitive analysis reports and present findings to engineering leadership, product management, and sales teams Support customer-facing activities by providing objective performance data and demonstrations Stay current with industry-standard benchmarks and emerging workload requirements Collaborate with architecture and marketing teams to translate benchmark insights into product requirements Collaborate with architecture and marketing teams to translate benchmark insights into product requirements Qualifications Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Electrical Engineering 7+ years of experience in embedded systems performance analysis, benchmarking, or competitive analysis roles in the semiconductor industry Demonstrated experience designing and executing rigorous, reproducible benchmark campaigns Technical Skills and Benchmarking Domains Industrial communication protocols (TSN, EtherCAT, PROFINET, CAN-FD) Network latency and bandwidth measurement methodology (RFC 2544-style testing, packet generators) Graphics/compute APIs and profiling (OpenGL ES, Vulkan, OpenCL, OpenGL) Standard industry suites: SPEC, CoreMark, Dhrystone, LMbench, GLMark, LuxMark, Stream Measurement & Analysis Proficiency with performance profiling tools Oscilloscope, logic analyzer, and protocol analyzer usage for interface characterization Statistical rigor: variance analysis, confidence intervals, controlled A/B comparisons Automation via Python scripting for test orchestration and data analysis Systems Background Embedded Linux and RTOS administration and configuration (Yocto, buildroot, FreeRTOS, Zephyr) ARM/RISC-V architecture expertise, including SIMD vector extensions (NEON, RVV) Solid understanding of cache hierarchy, DMA, and SoC data-path architecture Competitor ecosystem familiarity (TI Sitara/AM-ser