ESD Design Expert

Job Title

ESD Design Expert

Role Summary

The ESD Design Expert is a technical leader in the ACC CTO ESD/EMC team responsible for defining and deploying on-chip ESD protection solutions and robustness strategies across multiple product lines and technologies. The role influences architecture decisions, establishes ESD design methodologies, supports validation and failure analysis, and mentors engineering teams to deliver first-pass-right automotive and industrial semiconductor products.

Experience Level

Senior - typically 10 to 20 years of relevant experience in ESD protection design or analog/mixed-signal IC design.

Responsibilities

Key responsibilities include defining strategy, leading technical execution, and collaborating across technology, product, package, and validation teams.

• Define and drive ESD protection strategies, architectures, and roadmaps for new product families and emerging technologies.
• Lead the design, optimization, and validation of on-chip ESD protection for analog, mixed-signal, high-voltage, and automotive ICs.
• Establish ESD design methodologies, rules, best practices, and reusable design libraries.
• Provide technical leadership during product development to achieve First-Pass-Right while balancing reliability, performance, area, power, and cost.
• Drive ESD sign-off reviews and support critical cross-program design decisions.
• Lead ESD investigations, characterization campaigns, failure analysis, and root-cause assessments.
• Partner with EMC experts to develop chip- and system-level robustness solutions.
• Collaborate with technology teams to define future ESD devices and process capabilities.
• Develop advanced simulation, modeling, automation, and AI-assisted methodologies to detect robustness issues earlier.
• Act as technical interface for customer escalations and strategic robustness challenges.
• Drive innovation through patents, publications, partnerships, and research programs.
• Mentor and coach design engineers to raise technical capability across the organization.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills, experience, and behaviors; nice-to-have items follow.

• Must-have: 10+ years experience in ESD protection design or analog/mixed-signal IC design with a proven track record solving robustness/reliability issues in production products.
• Must-have: Deep expertise in semiconductor device physics and analog integrated circuit design.
• Must-have: Proven experience developing ESD protection solutions for analog, mixed-signal, high-voltage, power management, automotive products, or communication transceivers.
• Must-have: Strong knowledge of ESD and robustness standards: HBM, CDM, IEC 61000-4-2, ISO 10605, TLP, VF-TLP, latch-up, and system-level ESD requirements.
• Must-have: Extensive experience with EDA simulation tools, device modeling, silicon debug, and characterization techniques.
• Must-have: Strong understanding of chip-package-system interactions and robustness challenges.
• Must-have: Experience leading technical projects and influencing cross-functional engineering teams; strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Nice-to-have: EMC-aware analog design experience, automotive functional safety exposure, or experience with high-reliability semiconductor products.
• Nice-to-have: Experience with advanced process technologies such as CMOS, BCD, SOI, FinFET, or other high-voltage processes.
• Nice-to-have: Track record of patents, technical publications, conference presentations, or defining corporate design methodologies and roadmaps.
• Nice-to-have: Experience with AI-assisted circuit design, automation, data analytics, or machine learning applications for semiconductor development.
• Behaviors: Recognized technical leadership, strong analytical/problem-solving skills, mentoring capability, and ability to work across global multidisciplinary teams.

Education Requirements

Master's degree or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Microelectronics, Semiconductor Physics, or a related discipline.

About the Company

Company: NXP Semiconductors

Headquarters: Nijmegen, Netherlands

NXP Semiconductors N.V. is a global semiconductor company that provides High Performance Mixed Signal and Standard Product solutions. With over 45,000 employees and operations in more than 35 countries, NXP is a leader in secure connectivity solutions for embedded applications, catering to automotive, industrial IoT, mobile, and communication infrastructure markets. The company is committed to innovation and sustainability, advancing a smarter, safer, and more sustainable world through technology.