Senior Director CAD & Design Methodology
Summary
Lead the ASIC design methodology, CAD tools, and engineering infrastructure for an AI-focused semiconductor startup, defining flows from RTL to tapeout and scaling the CAD organization.
You lead the end-to-end ASIC design methodology, engineering infrastructure, and CAD organization. You define tools, automation, and workflows from RTL through signoff, packaging integration, and tapeout; manage EDA tools and licensing; build infrastructure and CI systems; and mentor and scale the CAD and methodology organization.
Responsibilities
- Architect and own the end-to-end ASIC development methodology
- Establish scalable and reproducible design flows across RTL verification synthesis DFT physical design STA physical verification release management and silicon bring-up support
- Lead the evaluation selection deployment and integration of EDA tools
- Define the engineering infrastructure strategy for compute storage networking cloud resources scheduling security backup and disaster recovery
- Build automation frameworks CI/CD pipelines regression systems dashboards and engineering workflows
- Own EDA licensing strategy vendor relationships procurement budgets IP administration and license compliance
- Partner with architecture RTL verification physical design packaging software and IT teams
- Build mentor and scale the CAD and methodology organization
Requirements
- Deep understanding of the complete ASIC development lifecycle from architecture and RTL through tapeout
- Experience developing and owning design methodologies across multiple successful SoC programs
- Hands-on experience with EDA ecosystems from multiple vendors such as Synopsys Cadence Siemens EDA and Ansys
- Strong understanding of engineering compute infrastructure distributed scheduling storage systems cloud environments and license management
- Excellent scripting and automation skills using Python Tcl Bash or similar
- Strong knowledge of version control continuous integration regression management and reproducible engineering practices
- Ability to make technical and business decisions involving tools infrastructure budgets licensing and engineering investment
- Exceptional organizational and leadership skills
- Excellent communication skills and ability to influence senior technical leaders across disciplines
- Experience with advanced technology nodes N3 N2 or beyond
- Experience building CAD organizations in an early-stage semiconductor company
- Familiarity with AI-assisted engineering workflows and next-generation design automation
- Experience supporting chiplet-based designs or advanced packaging
Benefits
- Equity participation
- Medical coverage
- Dental coverage
- Vision coverage
- Paid time off
- Flexible work arrangements