Senior Physical Design Engineer

Job Title

Senior Physical Design Engineer

Role Summary

Join Microsoft SCHIE as a Senior Physical Design Engineer responsible for physical implementation and integration of advanced semiconductor products that support Microsofts cloud infrastructure. The role focuses on block-to-full-chip physical design, signoff, and ensuring manufacturability, performance, and power efficiency for ASICs/SoCs.

The position involves technical ownership of physical design flows, tool/technology evaluation, and collaboration with cross-functional teams to meet tapeout and production goals.

Experience Level

Senior-level; typically requires 8+ years of relevant physical design experience.

Responsibilities

Deliver physical design implementation, integration, and signoff activities across block, subsystem, and full-chip scopes.

• Perform floorplanning, synthesis, placement, clock-tree synthesis (CTS) and custom clocking, routing, and timing closure.
• Lead static timing analysis (STA), physical verification, and formal equivalency checks toward signoff.
• Analyze and mitigate power integrity issues (IR-drop) and electromigration (EM); implement power-efficient techniques.
• Develop and automate physical design flows, scripts, and tool integrations to improve turnaround and quality.
• Evaluate process technologies, IP options, and vendors; provide technical recommendations for integration.
• Provide clear status, risk, and issue reporting to program management; work independently with limited direction.
• Support tapeout activities and silicon bring-up as needed; occasional travel (<25%).

Requirements

Essential technical skills and demonstrable experience for this role.

• Proven experience in physical design implementation and signoff at block, subsystem, sub-chip, or SoC level.
• Experience with tapeouts of complex ASICs in leading-edge process technologies.
• Hands-on expertise in floorplanning, placement & routing, CTS, STA, physical verification, and formal equivalency flows.
• Strong understanding of power integrity (IR-drop) and EM analysis and mitigation techniques.
• Experience developing or automating physical design flows and toolchains.
• Strong communication skills for technical reporting and risk management.
• Nice-to-have: prior evaluation of IP/vendors and familiarity with cloud hardware manufacturing constraints.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's or Masters degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field (Qualifications specify a Bachelors or Masters with 8+ years of experience).

About the Company

Company: Microsoft

Headquarters: Redmond, Washington, United States

Microsoft is a global technology company that develops and sells software, services, devices, and solutions. Known for its Windows operating system, Office suite, and Azure cloud platform, Microsoft aims to empower individuals and organizations around the world to achieve more. The company fosters a culture of innovation and inclusion, focusing on delivering trusted experiences to customers and partners globally.