Senior RTL Design Engineer

Job Title

Senior RTL Design Engineer

Role Summary

The role is within the SoC Design organization and focuses on RTL integration, front-end readiness for synthesis and implementation, and ensuring design quality across subsystems and SoC-level integrations.

The engineer will collaborate with IP designers, architects, verification, physical design, DFT, emulation, firmware, and methodology teams to prepare RTL, constraints, and configuration for downstream flows.

Experience Level

Senior-level. Typical guidance: 3+ years of relevant RTL/SoC design experience; the posting also maps similar responsibilities across Engineer → Principal levels for different seniority bands.

Responsibilities

Key responsibilities include integration, verification readiness, and synthesis support for SoC/subsystem RTL.

• Integrate RTL from multiple IPs, subsystems, and reusable components into top-level SoC/subsystem designs.
• Develop and maintain top-level wrappers, interconnect, clock/reset structures, interrupts, and configuration logic.
• Work with standard interfaces and protocols (AXI, AHB, APB), memory, debug, clock/reset, and power-management interfaces.
• Coordinate IP releases, manifests, parameters, build configurations, and design collateral.
• Run and debug RTL compile/elaboration, lint, CDC/RDC, structural checks, formal connectivity, and synthesis flows.
• Prepare RTL, constraints, libraries, and configuration inputs for synthesis and physical implementation handoff.
• Analyze synthesis reports for timing, area, power, high-fanout, unmapped logic, and other implementation issues.
• Collaborate with physical design to resolve timing, congestion, and convergence challenges.
• Support functional equivalence, gate-level simulation, emulation, FPGA builds, ECOs, and release readiness activities.
• Investigate failures across RTL, tools, constraints, and build environments and drive corrective actions.
• Participate in design, code, and integration reviews and contribute to methodology improvements and documentation.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience; preferred items noted where applicable.

• Must: 3+ years of relevant RTL design, SoC integration, synthesis, ASIC/FPGA development, or equivalent experience.
• Must: Hands-on Verilog or SystemVerilog RTL development and hierarchical integration experience.
• Must: Experience with RTL simulation, compilation/elaboration, lint, CDC/RDC, and synthesis/front-end flows.
• Must: Solid understanding of digital design fundamentals, timing concepts, clock/reset design, and bus protocols.
• Must: Ability to analyze synthesis and timing reports and debug front-end tool flows and build issues.
• Nice-to-have: Experience integrating complex SoCs, NoC/interconnect, memory, debug, security, or power-management logic.
• Nice-to-have: Hands-on timing constraints, timing analysis, area/power optimization, formal equivalence, ECO, or gate-level simulation.
• Nice-to-have: Low-power design knowledge (power intent, isolation, retention, multi-voltage), CDC/clock-domain crossing expertise.
• Nice-to-have: Scripting for automation (Python, Perl, Tcl, Shell) and experience with commercial/internal EDA tools.
• Must: Effective communication, root-cause analysis, and cross-functional collaboration skills in distributed teams.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field is stated as required. Preferred: Master's degree; PhD also accepted. The posting also lists alternate experience combinations: Bachelor's + 2+ years, Master's + 1+ year, or PhD (as an alternative). Equivalent practical experience is implied as acceptable in lieu of degree in some combinations.

About the Company

Company: Qualcomm

Headquarters: San Diego, California, United States

Qualcomm is a global leader in semiconductor and telecommunications equipment, specializing in mobile technologies and innovations. Known for its Adreno GPUs, the company provides solutions enabling advancements in mobile gaming, AI, VR/AR, and autonomous driving. Qualcomm's cutting-edge technology and commitment to high-performance, power-efficient designs drive the evolution of mobile graphics and connectivity worldwide.