Stage Ingénieur : Développement d’un outil d’analyse de performance pour simulations hardware (H/F)

NXP Semiconductors is seeking a final-year engineering intern in Caen to help build a performance analysis tool for hardware simulations of digital components. The six-month role sits in the Digital HW/SoC (System on Chip) department within the Secure Connected Edge product unit and is on site in France, ideal for someone who wants to apply classroom knowledge to real hardware verification work.

The internship sits with the Digital Design and Integration team, which provides solutions and components for mobile devices, secure payments, digital identity, connected objects and NFC infrastructure. On-time delivery and the quality of the blocks designed are the cornerstones of the team’s work, spanning all hardware development stages from specifications through tape-out, validation, production ramp-up and customer support. The goal is to create an internal tool that can extract and measure performance indicators from hardware simulations to simplify test scenario analysis and help pinpoint optimization opportunities. More information about NXP in France can be found here: More information about NXP in France...

The position suits someone who enjoys hands-on verification work in a collaborative, international setting and who wants to contribute to tooling that enhances how hardware simulations are analysed and interpreted.

A day in the hardware performance lab

You’ll work on understanding the current hardware simulation environment and determine which metrics are worth extracting, such as latency, bandwidth, waiting times and interface activity, along with any significant events. You’ll define how data from simulations should be collected and processed, then build a tool that can automatically evaluate the performance of a fully simulated system. Part of the job is to generate reports or synthetic views that let you compare different simulation scenarios, and to integrate the tool into the existing verification environment while validating its usefulness on representative use cases.

What you’ll bring to the team

Education level: Master’s degree or the final year of an engineering program in fields like Integrated Circuits, Integrated Electronics Systems, Electronics, Micro-Electronics, IoT Design, Embedded Systems, Electronic Systems or Industrial Software Engineering.

Knowledge you’ll need to hit the ground running includes:

• Digital design and the verification flow that goes with it
• VHDL, Verilog or SystemVerilog
• Software development, with Python as a preferred language
• Linux environments and scripting, for example Bash or Tcl
• Knowledge of UVM, simulation trace analysis or system performance would be a plus

A good level of English is required, since the internship operates in an international, multi-site setting. Bonus capabilities that help you stand out include a background in performance analysis or experience building reporting tools, and any experience with dashboards or data visualization to compare scenarios.

Three moves to win this internship

Lead with your degree and the fields you’re specialising in. In your resume, front-load the fact you’re a Master’s candidate or a final-year student in Integrated Circuits, Integrated Electronics Systems, Electronics, Micro-Electronics, IoT Design, Embedded Systems, Electronic Systems or Industrial Software Engineering, and note that the role is a six-month, onsite internship in Caen.

Show concrete examples of the must-have skills. Highlight a project where you worked with digital design or verification and where you used VHDL/Verilog/SystemVerilog, Python for analysis, and Linux scripting to process data or automate tasks. If you have any UVM exposure or a track record of analyzing simulation traces, call that out clearly.

Be prepared to talk through how you would define a data collection format for simulation outputs and how you’d validate your tool with representative use cases. In interview, be ready to walk through a concrete workflow: from environment understanding to metric extraction, tool integration and producing a concise report that supports decision-making.

Finally, consider a thoughtful question to ask about the role, such as which performance metrics the team prioritises first and how the new tool would be integrated into the current verification workflow to impact day-to-day validation efforts.