Physical Design Engineer

Job Title

Physical Design Engineer

Role Summary

Own block-level physical implementation and verification for Etched's inference-focused ASICs. Lead timing closure, PPA optimization, and supervision of third-party physical design while improving PD flows and automation.

Work closely with RTL designers, CAD/EDA vendors, and ASIC infrastructure teams to deliver high-performance blocks on advanced process nodes.

Experience Level

Mid-level (5–10+ years of physical design experience).

Responsibilities

Key responsibilities include implementation, verification, flow automation, and cross-team coordination.

• Run PD flows and drive block-level timing closure and PPA optimization.
• Support and improve ASIC infrastructure and CAD/EDA automation.
• Collaborate with RTL designers to provide PD feedback that improves PPA.
• Drive dashboards tracking PD convergence and project status.
• Optimize tool flows and work with EDA vendors to adopt new features.
• Supervise third-party vendors performing outsourced physical design.
• Be accountable for block-level sign-off through GDSII.

Requirements

Must-have technical experience and skills.

• 5–10+ years of physical design experience, including RTL-to-GDSII flows.
• Practical experience on advanced process nodes (5nm and below).
• Experience with Cadence Innovus/Genus or Synopsys ICC2/Fusion Compiler flows.
• Familiarity with sign-off tools such as PrimeTime, Tempus, Voltus.
• Knowledge of UPF low-power flows, power verification, synthesis, scan insertion/ATPG, floorplanning, placement, CTS, routing, IR drop, EM/antenna analysis.
• Proven timing closure and PPA optimization skills; ability to automate PD flows and improve CAD infrastructure.
• Experience supervising outsourced PD work and coordinating with vendors.
• Strong problem-solving and first-principles design thinking.

Nice-to-have:

• Familiarity with modern ML and LLM model architectures.
• Python or other scripting experience; familiarity with AI coding tools.
• Startup experience or comfort working in fast-paced environments.

Education Requirements

Not specified.

About the Company

Company: Etched

Headquarters: San Jose, CA, United States

Etched develops purpose-built AI inference ASICs and systems optimized for transformer models, aiming to deliver significantly higher performance, lower cost, and lower latency than GPUs. The company focuses on enabling applications like real-time video generation and advanced reasoning agents, and is backed by leading investors and engineers.