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
Entry-level software engineer on NVIDIA's VLSI physical design R&D team building internal EDA tools. The role focuses on developing algorithms and high-performance C++ software that improve chip frequency, power, and area for advanced AI hardware.
The team owns the full cycle from research and algorithm design through implementation and deployment into production design flows.
Experience Level
Entry-level — new college graduate (Class of 2026). Suitable for candidates with limited industry experience or internships; 0–2 years typical.
Responsibilities
You will develop algorithms and software components used in physical design toolchains and work directly with design teams to deploy them.
- Invent and implement optimization engines that combine multiple physical-design steps (e.g., co-optimization of legalization and sizing).
- Design and improve C++ algorithms for gate-level sizing, buffering, useful clock skew, cell legalization, power minimization, ECO routing, and incremental parasitic extraction.
- Profile and optimize software for performance and scalability (multithreading, memory and I/O efficiency).
- Integrate research prototypes into existing design flows and collaborate with layout/timing engineers during deployment.
- Maintain and extend toolchains and automation scripts used in implementation flows.
Requirements
Must-have technical skills and practical experience for the role; nice-to-have items listed separately.
- Must-have: Experience developing VLSI algorithms using C++ and practical understanding of physical design concepts such as timing optimization, cell libraries, interconnect models, crosstalk, glitches, IR drop, timing constraints, corners, and congestion.
- Familiarity with implementation toolflows and tools (examples: ICC2, Innovus, PrimeTime, Tempus, StarRC) and scripting in Perl, Tcl, or Python.
- Strong software engineering skills: debugging, testing, and delivering maintainable C++ code.
- Ability to work across research and production teams to move algorithms from prototype to deployed tools.
- Nice-to-have: C++14+ idioms (lambdas, concurrency), experience fusing multiple physical-design steps, high-performance software design (multithreading, distributed computing), and experience applying ML (reinforcement learning, GNNs) to physical design problems.
Education Requirements
Masters 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.
