Physical Design Engineer
You will drive the physical implementation and sign-off of critical high-performance silicon blocks from RTL to GDSII. You will optimize synthesis, floorplanning, placement, clock tree synthesis, routing, timing closure, extraction, physical verification, and power integrity. You will resolve complex design-closure issues, improve implementation methodologies and automation flows, collaborate across engineering functions, and provide technical leadership and mentoring.
Responsibilities
- Own critical design blocks from RTL to GDSII through synthesis, floorplanning, place and route, timing closure, and sign-off.
- Implement and optimize floorplans, power plans, placement, clock tree synthesis, routing, extraction, and sign-off closure.
- Drive timing convergence across multiple modes and corners while meeting frequency, power, area, and schedule goals.
- Evaluate micro-architecture feasibility and timing, power, congestion, and area tradeoffs with RTL and architecture teams.
- Develop physical design methodologies, implementation recipes, and automation flows.
- Perform logic synthesis, placement optimization, CTS, routing, timing ECOs, physical ECOs, extraction, and final sign-off.
- Analyze and resolve timing, congestion, clocking, signal integrity, power integrity, and physical verification issues.
- Perform DRC, LVS, ERC, antenna, density, metal fill, and layout-quality checks.
- Drive EM/IR analysis and ensure power-delivery and sign-off readiness.
- Use industry-standard implementation and sign-off tools.
- Create and maintain Tcl, Perl, and Python scripts to automate physical design tasks.
- Collaborate with RTL, DFT, STA, verification, CAD, packaging, and product engineering functions.
- Provide technical leadership in physical design closure and advanced-node implementation.
- Mentor engineers and establish physical design best practices.
Requirements
- 8+ years of hands-on experience in physical design implementation and sign-off for complex semiconductor designs.
- Experience delivering high-performance blocks from RTL to GDSII in advanced technology nodes.
- Experience closing high-performance compute-intensive IP blocks.
- Knowledge of synthesis, floorplanning, placement, CTS, routing, extraction, timing closure, and physical sign-off.
- Expertise in static timing analysis, timing constraints, clocking methodologies, multi-corner multi-mode closure, and timing ECOs.
- Experience with Synopsys Fusion Compiler, Cadence Innovus, PrimeTime, StarRC, Calibre, and Apache RedHawk.
- Experience with advanced process technologies, preferably sub-5nm nodes.
- Knowledge of power planning, IR drop, electromigration, signal integrity, congestion analysis, and physical design quality checks.
- Scripting skills in Tcl, Perl, or Python.
- Ability to work across multiple projects and geographically distributed teams.
Benefits
- Medical coverage
- Dental coverage
- Vision coverage
- Paid time off
- Flexible work arrangements