Chip Design Engineer Jobs in Portland, OR
Intel's Ronler Acres campus in Hillsboro is one of the largest chipmaking complexes anywhere, and it anchors a design cluster that runs across the Hillsboro and Beaverton corridor west of Portland. If you want to work on CPU or GPU design without paying Bay Area rent, Oregon is one of the strongest options in the country.
The openings here concentrate in a handful of places. Intel runs CPU and GPU design, process technology, and Intel Foundry Services out of Hillsboro. Lattice Semiconductor, headquartered in the same city, hires FPGA architecture and low-power programmable-logic engineers. Synopsys develops EDA tools locally, so there is steady demand for people who understand synthesis, timing, and place-and-route from the tool side. Ampere Computing runs a server-CPU engineering team in the area too.
Day to day, the roles skew toward CPU and GPU design at Intel, FPGA architecture at Lattice, and EDA tool engineering at Synopsys. Physical design, RTL, and validation positions show up across all three. If you have shipped silicon or closed timing on a large SoC, that experience travels well between these employers.
The local talent pipeline runs through Oregon State and Portland State, both of which send strong EE graduates into Intel and Lattice. That keeps the new-grad and entry-level market unusually active for a metro this size.
Portland pay usually sits below Silicon Valley for the same title, but the gap narrows once you account for no state sales tax and lower housing costs. Our salary guide for semiconductor jobs breaks ranges down by discipline and level.
For more Portland-area listings, see Intel physical design engineer jobs and Lattice Semiconductor FPGA design jobs. Save a search on SemiDesignJobs and you will get an email when a Portland chip design role matching your filters opens.
FAQ
What is Intel's presence in Portland, OR?
Intel's Ronler Acres campus in Hillsboro is one of its largest engineering and manufacturing sites in the world, with thousands of design and process engineers. Portland-area employees work on CPU design, GPU implementation, process technology, and the company's foundry business, Intel Foundry Services.
Which other semiconductor companies hire chip design engineers in Portland?
Lattice Semiconductor (headquartered in Hillsboro), Synopsys (Hillsboro EDA development), Radisys, and Ampere Computing all hire chip design engineers in the greater Portland area. A smaller cluster of fabless startups also operates in the city.
Is Portland a good city for semiconductor engineers early in their careers?
Yes. Intel runs a large new-graduate hiring program, and Oregon State and Portland State produce strong EE graduates who frequently land their first chip design roles at Intel and Lattice.