Analog/mixed-signal IC Design Engineer - Acacia (Hybrid)
Cisco SystemsJob Title
Analog/mixed-signal IC Design Engineer - Acacia (Hybrid)
Role Summary
Member of Acacia's 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. This is a hybrid role requiring three days per week in the San Jose, CA office.
Work closely with digital/DSP, system, package and module teams to deliver integrated transceiver ASICs; lead block-level efforts and mentor colleagues.
Experience Level
Senior — expects 7+ years of related experience. See Education Requirements for the degree-specific years guidance.
Responsibilities
Key responsibilities include designing and delivering high-speed AMS ICs and supporting their integration into products.
- Architect, simulate, verify and optimize high-speed analog/mixed-signal IC blocks for optical transceivers.
- Perform and oversee physical layout and high-frequency floorplanning (power/ground, analog/digital routing).
- Lead large-block design efforts, manage deliverables, and mentor junior engineers.
- Conduct peer reviews and establish robust design methodologies from concept through production.
- Collaborate with packaging and hardware teams to meet signal and power-integrity requirements.
- Develop and execute laboratory validation, measurement plans, and support productization activities.
Requirements
Must-have skills and experience:
- Proven track record designing, simulating, and measuring high-speed ICs; experience must include at least three of the following: serializers/deserializers and data converters; system link modeling; high-performance output drivers; high-performance PLLs; efficient clock transmission/propagation; opamps and programmable gain amplifiers; equalization techniques.
- High-frequency layout experience, including floorplanning and routing for mixed-signal designs.
- Hands-on mixed-signal simulation and verification experience (Spectre/APS/SpectreX, AMS workflows) and layout validation tools (Virtuoso, Calibre).
- Laboratory measurement and validation experience, including construction of test setups and ESD practices.
- Experience with design-for-manufacturability analyses: PVT characterization, electromigration, self-heating, and IR drop analysis.
- Proficiency with Cadence Virtuoso and Matlab or equivalent design/analysis tools.
Nice-to-have:
- Experience with electrical transceiver applications (backplane and cable communications) and 25Gb/s+ serial links.
- Experience with advanced process technologies (FinFET, GAA) and EM/field-extraction tools (EMX).
Education Requirements
Minimum: Bachelor’s degree + 8 years related experience, Master’s degree + 6 years related experience, or PhD + 3 years related experience. The posting defines required years by degree; specific fields were not listed in the posting (relevant backgrounds typically include electrical engineering or related technical disciplines).
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).
