Software R&D Engineer, VLSI Physical Design - New College Grad 2026
NVIDIAJob Title
Software R&D Engineer, VLSI Physical Design - New College Grad 2026
Role Summary
Develop software algorithms and tools for VLSI physical design to improve performance, power, and area (PPA). The role sits on an internal EDA/tooling team that fuses algorithm research, software engineering, and hardware design knowledge to deliver optimization engines used on advanced GPU designs.
The position focuses on inventing and implementing high-performance C++ algorithms and working directly with design teams to deploy solutions.
Experience Level
Entry-level — new college graduate. Intended for recent Master's or PhD graduates or candidates with equivalent practical experience; suitable for 0–2 years of professional experience.
Responsibilities
Primary responsibilities include researching, implementing, and delivering physical-design optimization software and collaborating with design teams to deploy improvements.
- Invent and prototype new optimization engines that co-optimize traditionally separate flows (e.g., legalization with sizing) to improve chip frequency and reduce power.
- Design, implement, and optimize C++ algorithms for gate-level sizing, buffering, useful clock skew, cell legalization, power minimization, ECO routing, and incremental parasitic extraction.
- Profile and improve software performance: multithreading, memory and I/O efficiency, and scalable execution.
- Work end-to-end from research and algorithm development to integration with design teams and deployment on production flows.
Requirements
Must-have technical skills and experience; nice-to-have items listed separately.
- Must-have: Experience developing VLSI physical-design algorithms in C++.
- Solid understanding of VLSI timing optimization and related concepts: cell libraries, interconnect models, crosstalk, glitches, IR drop, timing constraints, corners, and congestion.
- Familiarity with common implementation and signoff tools and flows such as ICC2, Innovus, PrimeTime, Tempus, StarRC and scripting in Perl, Tcl, or Python.
- Ability to collaborate with chip design teams and translate algorithmic ideas into deployable tools.
- Nice-to-have: Modern C++ (C++14+) idioms, concurrency and lambda usage; experience in high-performance software design (multithreading, distributed computing, efficient memory and I/O); familiarity with ML approaches applied to physical design (reinforcement learning, GNNs).
Education Requirements
Master's or PhD in Electrical Engineering or Computer Science, or equivalent practical 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.
