Senior Staff Physical Design Engineer (IC/SoC)
ALTEN TechnologyJob Title
Senior Staff Physical Design Engineer (IC/SoC)
Role Summary
Lead physical design activities for complex IC/SoC projects, focusing on floorplanning, clock tree synthesis, timing closure, and signoff readiness. Collaborate with RTL, synthesis, verification, and backend teams to deliver tapeout-quality layouts.
Experience Level
Senior — senior/lead engineering role. Specific years of experience not specified.
Responsibilities
Responsible for hands-on implementation and technical leadership across physical design phases.
- Develop and execute floorplans, placement, clock tree synthesis (CTS), and routing strategies to meet timing and power goals.
- Drive timing closure across corners and modes, including ECOs and post-route timing fixes.
- Perform signoff preparation and work with signoff tools and flows to resolve DRC/LVS and timing issues.
- Use industry-standard P&R and signoff tools; create and maintain scripts and automation for flow efficiency.
- Collaborate with RTL, synthesis, STA, DFT, and physical verification engineers to meet area, performance, and power targets.
- Troubleshoot complex physical problems and propose pragmatic design or implementation changes.
- Mentor junior engineers and contribute to process and flow improvements.
Requirements
Must-have technical skills and practical experience.
- Proven hands-on experience in physical design: floorplanning, CTS, placement, routing, and timing closure.
- Experience with modern technology nodes (examples: 28nm, 14nm, 7nm).
- Familiarity with industry-standard tools for place-and-route and signoff (e.g., Innovus/ICC2, Tempus, PrimeTime, Calibre, StarRC) and physical verification flows.
- Strong scripting/automation skills (Tcl and/or Python) to drive flows and debug issues.
- Excellent problem-solving, verbal and written communication skills, and ability to work collaboratively across teams.
- Ability to lead technical discussions, make tradeoffs for PPA, and drive to closure under project timelines.
Nice-to-have:
- Experience with low-power design techniques, multi-voltage domains, and DFT/scan flows.
- Knowledge of advanced signoff flows or parasitic extraction at advanced nodes.
Education Requirements
Not specified.
About the Company
Company: ALTEN Technology
Headquarters: Boulder, CO, USA
ALTEN Technology USA is an engineering company that assists clients in transforming innovative ideas into reality. With a focus on industries such as aerospace, medical devices, autonomous vehicles, and robotics, they provide comprehensive engineering and consulting services throughout the product development cycle. As part of the global ALTEN Group, they leverage a substantial workforce to tackle demanding engineering challenges in collaboration with leading corporations.
