Principal Product Engineer

Job Title

Principal Product Engineer

Role Summary

Work within the Digital and Signoff Group to support product development, customer engagements, and performance optimization for place-and-route tools. Collaborate with R&D, application engineering, and product marketing to evaluate feature impact and drive tool improvements.

The role focuses on PPA benchmarking, customer and foundry interactions, scripting-based point solutions, and data analysis to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks.

Experience Level

Senior-level. The posting requests 7–10 years of relevant industry experience (or 5 years with a Master's degree).

Responsibilities

Primary duties include engineering support, benchmarking, and collaboration across teams to improve place-and-route tool performance.

• Provide place-and-route expertise to customers and internal development teams.
• Perform PPA benchmarking on customer and foundry test cases.
• Evaluate the impact of new product features on performance, power, and area (PPA).
• Act as liaison between customers/foundries and R&D for new feature development.
• Develop point solutions and automation using scripting.
• Conduct data mining and analysis to identify PPA-limiting issues and optimization opportunities.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience required for the role.

• 7+ years hands-on experience with industry-standard place-and-route tools (5 years if holding a Master's degree).
• Strong understanding of the RTL-to-GDSII flow.
• Familiarity with PDK and design kit collaterals.
• Solid knowledge of timing and power analysis and optimization.
• Proficient scripting skills for automation and point-solution development.
• Experience in PPA benchmarking and working with customer or foundry test cases.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or an equivalent technical major. Master's level preferred; equivalent practical experience accepted.

About the Company

Company: Cadence Design Systems

Headquarters: San Jose, California, USA

Cadence Design Systems is a global electronic design automation company that provides software, hardware, and intellectual property for designing advanced semiconductor chips. With over 25 years in the industry, Cadence is known for its innovative technology solutions and has been recognized by Fortune Magazine as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. The company is dedicated to solving complex technical challenges in order to enable customers to create revolutionary products and experiences.