Senior Digital ASIC Design Engineer

Job Title

Senior Digital ASIC Design Engineer

Role Summary

Work on digital ASIC design within Draper's engineering team in Cambridge, MA, focusing on transistor-level and system-level design to deliver complex chip architectures for defense, space, and biomedical applications.

Responsibilities include design and simulation, physical layout guidance, mentoring engineers, and supporting proposals when required.

Experience Level

Senior. Typical experience: 7–10 years with a Bachelor's degree or 5–10 years with a Master's degree in ASIC hardware engineering or a related field.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include design, simulation, architecture, and team leadership:

• Design and simulate circuits at the transistor level to meet architecture and requirements.
• Contribute to system-level design and optimize hardware for performance, power, and cost.
• Evaluate hardware feasibility of algorithms and system requirements.
• Independently contribute to complex chip architectures and drive technical solutions.
• Guide physical layout and floor-planning; perform simulations with extracted parasitics.
• Document designs, develop best practices, and mentor less-experienced engineers.
• Support proposal and business development activities as needed.

Requirements

Must-have skills and technical experience:

• Proven experience in integrated circuit and digital ASIC design; transistor-level design experience preferred.
• Fluency in SystemVerilog, Verilog, or VHDL and familiarity with Cadence or Synopsys design flows.
• Ability to write detailed design specifications and lead multidisciplinary technical teams.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills; solid mathematical ability and effective written/verbal communication.
• Experience optimizing designs for performance, power, and cost and evaluating hardware feasibility.

Nice-to-have:

• Experience teaching best practices or mentoring engineers.
• Hands-on experience with floor-planning and parasitic-extracted simulation.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related field is required; Master's degree preferred. Typical experience expectation: 7–10 years with a Bachelor's or 5–10 years with a Master's in ASIC Hardware Engineering or a related discipline.

About the Company

Company: Draper

Headquarters: Cambridge, MA, United States

Draper is an independent, nonprofit research and development organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. With over 2,000 employees, Draper develops advanced technologies in defense, space, biomedical engineering, and other national-security and commercial domains through multidisciplinary teams of engineers and scientists.