RF IC Designers

Job Title

RF IC Designers

Role Summary

Design RF transceivers and analog circuits for Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth products, taking blocks from architecture and specification through transistor-level CMOS design, verification, and chip integration.

This role works within the Wi‑Fi Connectivity group and partners with system, analog, digital, verification, layout, and test engineers to deliver low‑power, high‑performance radio ICs.

Experience Level

Mid-level (Experienced). The posting targets engineers with roughly 3+ years of RF IC design experience through senior levels; exact seniority will depend on the specific opening.

Responsibilities

Typical responsibilities for positions on this team (individual roles will include a subset):

• Design high-performance RF and analog circuits (LNAs, mixers, PAs, VCOs, PLLs, filters, ADC/DACs) at transistor level for Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth transceivers.
• Translate system requirements and standards into RF architectures, block specifications, and verified implementations.
• Drive low‑power architecture and biasing choices to meet battery-life targets.
• Develop schematics, run RF and noise simulations, participate in design reviews, and support layout and EM modelling.
• Define and execute pre‑ and post‑layout verification and corner simulations (PVT, mismatch, noise).
• Integrate RF IP into full-chip designs and ensure system-level performance across analog, digital, and package domains.
• Collaborate with physical-design/layout engineers on floorplanning, matching, isolation, and substrate-noise management.
• Support silicon bring-up, lab characterization, and debug; update models based on measurements.
• Document design decisions, verification results, and technical risks for stakeholders.

Requirements

Key technical skills and experience expected (must-have vs nice-to-have indicated where applicable):

• Must-have: Several years of industrial RF IC design experience in CMOS (approx. 3+ years for mid-level roles; senior roles require more extensive experience).
• Must-have: Strong fundamentals in CMOS device behavior and RF topics such as noise, linearity, impedance matching, stability, feedback, and PVT variation.
• Must-have: Hands-on experience designing and verifying RF building blocks (LNAs, mixers, PAs, VCOs/PLLs, frequency synthesizers) and running RF simulations.
• Must-have: Experience with pre‑ and post‑layout verification and EM-aware design of passives and interconnect.
• Must-have: Practical lab experience characterizing and debugging RF silicon.
• Nice-to-have: Direct experience with Wi‑Fi (802.11) and/or Bluetooth Low Energy radio design and relevant standards.
• Must-have: Strong independent problem-solving, root-cause analysis, and the ability to drive solutions to completion.
• Must-have: Good interpersonal and communication skills; fluent English, written and spoken.

Education Requirements

Master's degree or PhD in electrical engineering, microelectronics, physics, or another relevant science or engineering discipline (as stated in the posting).

About the Company

Company: Nordic Semiconductor

Headquarters: Trondheim, Norway

Norwegian fabless semiconductor company that designs low-power wireless connectivity solutions and system-on-chips (SoCs) for IoT, including Bluetooth Low Energy, Thread, Zigbee, LTE-M/NB-IoT, Wi‑Fi, and cloud services (nRF Cloud).