Senior Software R&D Engineer, VLSI Physical Design

Job Title

Senior Software R&D Engineer, VLSI Physical Design

Role Summary

Develop algorithms and tools for VLSI physical design including placement, global routing, floorplanning, and optimization. Work spans computational geometry, graph optimization, visualization, and machine-learning–assisted design-space exploration.

Collaborate with chip design teams to deliver production-ready software that determines physical layout, performance, and efficiency of AI chips.

Experience Level

Senior — typically 6+ years of software development experience; expects leadership in algorithm design and tool development.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include research, implementation, and deployment of physical-design algorithms and tools.

• Design and implement algorithms for chip-level placement, reshaping, and routing optimization.
• Develop computational-geometry and graph-based solutions to improve layout quality and PPA (power, performance, area).
• Prototype and integrate machine-learning strategies to accelerate design-space exploration.
• Optimize software for high performance: multithreading, memory and I/O efficiency, and distributed execution where applicable.
• Extend and maintain visualization and GUI tools for designer insight and debugging.
• Collaborate with silicon design teams to validate and deploy tools across design flows.

Requirements

Core technical requirements and desirable skills.

Must-have:

• 6+ years of software development experience in C++ with production-quality code and tooling.
• Strong understanding of VLSI physical design concepts: placement, routing, and floorplanning; solid graph-theory background.
• Experience with CAD/EDA flows and familiarity with implementation tools such as ICC2 or Innovus.
• Proven ability in algorithm development for physical-design analysis and visualization.
• Effective communication and collaboration skills with cross-functional engineering teams.

Nice-to-have:

• Proficiency in modern C++ (C++14/17), concurrency, and lambda usage.
• Experience in high-performance software design: multithreading, distributed computing, efficient memory and I/O.
• Experience applying machine learning to optimization or design automation.
• Demonstrated problem-solving persistence for large-scale combinatorial optimization challenges.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a closely related technical field — or equivalent practical industry experience.

About the Company

Company: NVIDIA

Headquarters: Santa Clara, California, USA

NVIDIA is a global leader in accelerated computing, renowned for its innovative solutions in AI and digital twins that transform diverse industries. The company specializes in networking technologies, providing end-to-end InfiniBand and Ethernet solutions for servers and storage that optimize performance and scalability. NVIDIA serves sectors such as high-performance computing, enterprise data centers, and cloud computing, constantly reinventing its products and services to stay ahead in the market.