Engineer
Posted 21 Aug 2026
Advertised as “Staff Engineer, PCIe PHY/Link Analysis”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Expected experience
- 5+ yrs
- Management level
- Individual contributor
No salary listed for this role.
Field of studyComputer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering
Study levelBachelor's or higher
Please Note:
To provide the best candidate experience amidst our high application volumes, each candidate is limited to 10 applications across all open jobs within a 6-month period.
Advancing the World’s Technology Together
Our technology solutions power the tools you use every day--including smartphones, electric vehicles, hyperscale data centers, IoT devices, and so much more. Here, you’ll have an opportunity to be part of a global leader whose innovative designs are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and powering the future.
We believe innovation and growth are driven by an inclusive culture and a diverse workforce. We’re dedicated to empowering people to be their true selves. Together, we’re building a better tomorrow for our employees, customers, partners, and communities.
At the Technology Enabling Development Lab (TED), our core development focus is the host interface firmware layer that sits in the intersection of system software and flash management firmware. This key host interface firmware technology drives Samsung’s breakthrough V-NAND technology and enables our customers to power performance-oriented, demanding, enterprise-class applications ranging from hyper-scale data centers, to big data processing, to software defined virtualized storage arrays and infrastructures.
We are looking for a dynamic, self-motivated engineer to develop and support our cutting-edge Enterprise and Data Center SSD products. The ideal candidate will possess comprehensive expertise across the full PCIe protocol stack - from the Physical Layer (PHY) through the Data Link Layer and up to the Transaction/Transport Layer - with a proven track record in hardware/firmware design, protocol implementation, and complex link bring-up and debugging.
What You’ll Do
- Protocol Stack Analysis: Understand PHY/Link architecture, implementation, and integration of the PCIe protocol stack from the Physical Layer through the Data Link Layer to the Transaction/Transport Layer, in collaboration with internal H/W teams and external vendors.
- Link Bring-up & Training: Own LTSSM behavior, link training and equalization sequencing, PCIe enumeration, and configuration-space flows during device bring-up.
- Transaction/Transport Layer: Analyze and validate TLP/DLLP handling, flow control, credit management, ordering rules, ACK/NAK and replay, error handling (AER), and end-to-end data integrity across the stack.
- Debug & Optimization: Analyze and debug complex PHY, Link, and Transport layer issues during bring-up and sustaining stages of NVMe SSD products, from Gen1 to the latest generation (Gen7), covering protocol (LTSSM / PCIe enumeration) and PCIe feature-related issues.