Improving verification to Accelerate Shift-Left

Verification is no longer just a technical challenge—it is a leadership challenge in achieving predictability, quality, and accelerated convergence. As SoCs and AI workloads grow in complexity, shift-left methodologies are essential to bring verification into the earliest phases of design. In this session, Sheela Pillai, will share her leadership perspective and philosophy on how verification can be accelerated, made more predictable, and drive early design convergence. Drawing on over 25 years of experience at AMD, Intel, Qualcomm, Microsoft, and Renesas, she will discuss how shift-left practices—such as integrating physical design and scan insertion earlier—enable multifaceted closure and improved silicon quality. Attendees will gain both technical strategies and leadership insights into making verification not only a technical enabler but also a driver of innovation and organizational success.

Sheela Pillai is a senior semiconductor industry leader with more than 25 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, Sheela has a proven record of delivering breakthrough products, scaling global engineering organizations, and driving transformation across design and verification. Throughout her career, Sheela has guided complex SoC programs from concept through delivery, spanning compute, automotive, and communications markets. She is recognized for her ability to align strategy with execution, transforming engineering teams to achieve efficiency, first-pass silicon success, and accelerated time-to-market. Sheela combines deep technical knowledge in SoC design and verification strategy with a leadership style rooted in clarity, empathy, and empowerment. Most recently Sheela was Senior Director of Engineering at Renesas, in the High Performance Computing group leading automotive SOC design and development. Prior to Renesas, Sheela held senior leadership roles at Intel, Qualcomm, Microsoft, AMD, and Altera. At Qualcomm, she led post-silicon validation and customer enablement for the company’s first flagship ARM-based server SoCs in 10nm and 7nm. At Intel, she served as Senior Director of Engineering in the Intel Foundry Services group, leading IP development and automotive SoC methodology, and earlier contributed to industry-defining initiatives such as InfiniBand and PCI Express. At AMD, Sheela played a pivotal role in transforming the company’s design methodology, leading the adoption of SoC/IP-based development approaches that enabled multiple parallel product launches and accelerated time-to-market. Known as a change agent and organizational “fixer,” Sheela has been repeatedly called upon by senior leadership to transform underperforming teams and deliver on critical programs. Passionate about mentorship, she is dedicated to building high-performance teams, nurturing technical leaders, and shaping the future of semiconductor innovation.