Analog/Mixed-Signal IC Design Engineer - Acacia
Cisco SystemsJob Title
Analog/Mixed-Signal IC Design Engineer - Acacia
Role Summary
Member of a small mixed-signal IC design team responsible for architecting, designing, laying out, measuring and productizing ultra-deep sub-micron CMOS analog and mixed-signal circuits for high-speed optical transceivers.
The role is hybrid (three days per week in the San Jose, CA office) and requires collaboration with digital/DSP, system, package and module teams to meet signal and power integrity and production goals.
Experience Level
Senior-level. Requires substantial hands-on IC design and verification experience; see Education Requirements for degree and years guidance.
Responsibilities
Primary technical and team responsibilities include:
- Architect, design, simulate, and layout high-speed analog/mixed-signal blocks (25+ Gb/s) for optical transceivers from concept through production.
- Lead large-block design efforts, track deliverables, and participate in peer reviews and design methodology enforcement.
- Mentor junior engineers and provide technical leadership within the mixed-signal group.
- Develop and execute measurement and laboratory validation plans, including test setups and ESD practices.
- Collaborate with packaging and hardware teams to ensure signal/power integrity and manufacturability across PVT conditions.
- Create documentation and support productization activities for production readiness.
Requirements
Must-have skills and experience (concise):
- Hands-on experience designing, simulating, and measuring high-speed ICs; experience must cover at least three of the areas listed below.
- Relevant technical areas (experience in three or more): High-speed serial links (SERDES, ADC/DAC), high-performance output drivers, phase-locked loops (PLLs), clock transmission/propagation, opamps/programmable gain amplifiers, and equalization techniques.
- Experience with high-frequency layout and floorplanning (power/ground, analog/digital routing) and passive components (inductors, transformers, transmission lines).
- Design-for-manufacturability experience: PVT characterization, electromigration, self-heating, and IR-drop analysis.
- Laboratory validation experience, including ESD methodology and construction of test setups.
- Familiarity with common IC design tools and flows, e.g., Cadence Virtuoso, Spectre/SpectreX/APS, Calibre, EMX, mixed-signal AMS simulations, and MATLAB.
Preferred (nice-to-have):
- Experience with electrical transceiver applications (backplane and cable communications).
- Experience with FinFET or GAA technologies.
Education Requirements
Minimum qualifications: Bachelor's degree plus 8 years of related experience, or Master's degree plus 6 years of related experience, or PhD plus 3 years of related experience. (Degree discipline not explicitly stated in the posting.)
About the Company
Company: Cisco Systems
Headquarters: San Jose, CA, United States
Cisco Systems is a global technology company that designs and sells networking hardware, telecommunications equipment, software, and services. It provides enterprise and service-provider networking, security, collaboration, and optical communications solutions (including Acacia Communications technologies for high-speed optical interconnects).
