Software Engineering Intern – ARM Systems & Infrastructure

Keysight is on the forefront of technology innovation, delivering breakthroughs and trusted insights in electronic design, simulation, prototyping, test, manufacturing, and optimization. Our ~15,000 employees create world-class solutions in communications, 5G, automotive, energy, quantum, aerospace, defense, and semiconductor markets for customers in over 100 countries. Learn more about what we do.

Our award-winning culture embraces a bold vision of where technology can take us and a passion for tackling challenging problems with industry-first solutions. We believe that when people feel a sense of belonging, they can be more creative, innovative, and thrive at all points in their careers.

Join the Design Engineering Software (DES) team based in Santa Rosa, CA, collaborating with engineers around the world to develop Keysight’s Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software portfolio — the industry-leading tools used to design wireless systems, high-speed digital hardware, aerospace and defense platforms, and next-generation communication technologies.

We are seeking a highly motivated Software Engineering Intern to work on a challenging infrastructure project to enable our advanced EDA simulation products (ADS, RFPro, NEXUS etc.) on ARM-based platforms.

This is a systems-level engineering role, not application development. You will work deep in the software stack — porting large C++ codebases, replacing architecture-specific numerical libraries, debugging low-level runtime issues, and resolving complex build and ABI challenges. This role is a "trial by fire" for engineers who love understanding how software interacts with hardware.

This role offers a rare opportunity to work on a high-impact project that directly influences our future product roadmap. You will gain deep expertise in system architecture and performance optimization while working alongside senior infrastructure engineers.

Key Responsibilities: 

• Architecture Porting: Port and build large-scale C++ simulation codebases on ARM-based Linux instances.
• Library Optimization: Identify and swap out x86-specific dependencies (e.g., Intel MKL) with ARM-compatible performance libraries (e.g., ArmPL, OpenBLAS).
• System Debugging: Use low-level tools (GDB, LLDB, Valgrind) to identify and fix runtime errors, memory alignment issues, and illegal instructions.
• Build Infrastructure: Modify and maintain complex build systems (CMake, Make) to support cross-compilation and multi-architecture builds.
• Iterative Testing: Systematically work through dependency trees, resolving errors one library at a time until the simulator runs successfully on ARM.

• Investigate and resolve architecture-related issues (ABI differences, alignment, performance)
• Improve build and automation workflows where needed
• Document solutions and best practices for long-term ARM support

Qualifications

• Advanced C/C++: Proficiency in C/C++ with a focus on memory management, pointers, and shared library linking.
• Linux Mastery: Deep comfort with the Linux command line, including environment variables, shell scripting, and library paths (LD_LIBRARY_PATH).
• Build Systems: Experience with CMake, Make, or Ninja.
• Debugging Mindset: Proven ability to read stack traces and debug crashes at the system level.
• Education: Currently pursuing a BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Electrical Engineering.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience with ARM architecture (e.g., Raspberry Pi, AWS Graviton, Apple Silicon).

• Experience porting software across architectures or operating systems.
• Knowledge of numerical or performance libraries (BLAS/LAPACK, OpenBLAS, Eigen, FFT libraries)

• Experience with SIMD instructions (replacing AVX/SSE with NEON/SVE).
• Contributions to low-level open-source projects (compilers, kernels, or emulators).

• Exposure to cross-compilation toolchains

Pay Range:

 $40.32 $42.49 $43.42

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