Physical Design Engineer

Job Title

Physical Design Engineer

Role Summary

Hands-on Physical Design Engineer supporting complex SoC projects for a client developing advanced custom System-on-Chip solutions. Collaborate with customers, front-end, and integration teams through all phases of physical design to deliver successful tape-outs.

Local candidates preferred.

Experience Level

Senior — preferred 10+ years of hands-on physical design experience. The qualifications section also lists a baseline of 5+ years associated with the BSEE requirement.

Responsibilities

Primary duties include floorplanning, timing analysis, placement/routing, and sign-off activities across chip and block levels.

• Pre-layout STA for feasibility and timing constraint validation
• Chip/block-level floorplanning and pin assignment
• Clock specification review and clock tree synthesis
• Placement, routing, and timing optimization
• Sign-off tasks: RC extraction, STA, IR-drop analysis, and physical verification
• Participate in customer meetings and deliver technical presentations

Requirements

Must-have skills for immediate contribution are listed first; nice-to-have items follow.

• Must-have: Hands-on ASIC physical design and SoC development experience, including synthesis and end-to-end ownership of multiple tape-outs (28nm/16nm preferred)
• Must-have: Proficiency with ICC2/Innovus and timing sign-off tools (PrimeTime)
• Must-have: Scripting proficiency (Perl, Tcl, Python)
• Must-have: Familiarity with power/IR-drop analysis tools (PrimePower, Redhawk) and physical verification debugging
• Must-have: Strong communication and problem-solving skills; ability to work independently and in small teams
• Nice-to-have: Experience at small companies; knowledge of frontend design flows and hierarchical layouts

Education Requirements

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) required (posting pairs this with 5+ years experience); Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE) preferred. No certifications or explicit "equivalent experience" language was provided.

About the Company

Company: iLocatum

Technical recruiting firm specializing in placing engineering talent for semiconductor, SoC, and advanced electronics roles. Posts job opportunities and supports hiring for custom ASIC and SoC development positions.