Principal Physical Design Engineer - MCU

Job Title

Principal Physical Design Engineer - MCU

Role Summary

Lead physical implementation for microcontroller (MCU) designs, owning place-and-route, timing closure, and silicon signoff. Coordinate with RTL, verification, synthesis and backend teams to deliver tapeouts on schedule.

Experience Level

Senior — Principal-level role (typical expectation: 7+ years of relevant experience).

Responsibilities

Core responsibilities include:

• Lead physical design activities: floorplanning, placement, routing, timing closure and ECOs for MCU blocks and full-chip integration.
• Define and execute signoff flows for timing, power, and manufacturability (DRC/LVS).
• Collaborate with RTL, synthesis, verification, and backend teams to identify and resolve implementation issues.
• Develop and maintain automation and scripts to streamline P&R and signoff flows.
• Mentor engineers, provide technical leadership, and drive process improvements.
• Support silicon bring-up, characterization and failure analysis as required.

Requirements

Must-have:

• Proven experience in physical design for digital ASICs, including place-and-route and timing closure.
• Familiarity with signoff methodologies and tools for STA, DRC/LVS and power analysis.
• Experience with scripting and automation (for example Tcl, Python or Perl) and EDA tool flows.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills across cross-functional teams.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical projects and mentor other engineers.

Nice-to-have:

• Experience with MCU or embedded SoC design, low-power techniques, and backend manufacturing flows.
• Hands-on experience supporting silicon bring-up and debug.

Education Requirements

Not specified.

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.