Senior Physical Design Engineer

Team: Engineering & Operations

Location: Saratoga, CA

Commitment: Full-Time

Workplace Type: onsite

Salary:

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING:

• Lead physical design implementation from floorplanning through GDSII sign-off for complex SoC blocks and full-chip designs

• Perform floorplanning, power planning, placement, clock tree synthesis (CTS), and routing

• Drive physical design closure meeting PPA (Power, Performance, Area) targets across all design corners

• Collaborate with the STA team to analyze and resolve timing violations through ECO-driven optimization

• Conduct and resolve physical verification (DRC, LVS, ERC) issues in partnership with the signoff team

• Develop and maintain physical design scripts, flows, and automation in Tcl/Python

• Work with foundry process design kits (PDKs) and ensure design rule compliance on advanced nodes

• Support integration of hard macros, memory compilers, and analog IP into top-level designs

• Analyze and optimize signal integrity, including crosstalk and noise effects

• Contribute to physical design methodology development and mentor junior engineers

WHAT YOU BRING TO THIS ROLE:

• Minimum 8+ years of experience in physical design of complex digital ASICs or SoCs

• Deep expertise in Cadence Innovus, with broad familiarity with other P&R tools such as Synopsys ICC2

• Strong experience in floorplanning, power planning, placement, CTS, and routing for multi-million gate designs

• Deep knowledge of timing-driven physical design and working with STA engineers for timing closure

• Experience with physical verification tools (Mentor Calibre, Synopsys ICV) and DRC/LVS debug

• Proficiency in scripting (Tcl, Python) for flow development and automation

• Solid understanding of low-power design techniques (clock gating, power domains, UPF/CPF)

• Experience with advanced process nodes and associated PDK constraints

• Strong problem-solving skills and attention to detail in a deadline-driven environment

BONUS POINTS:

• Experience with 7nm or sub-7nm process nodes

• Exposure to custom digital or mixed-signal IC physical design

• Familiarity with signal integrity analysis tools and methodology

• Experience with hierarchical physical design flows for very large SoCs

• Background in satellite, 5G, or IoT chip design