Sr. Physical Design Engineer, Annapurna Labs

Job Title

Senior Physical Design Engineer, Annapurna Labs

Role Summary

Work on physical implementation and optimization of custom SoCs used in AWS machine-learning servers (e.g., Inferentia, Trainium). You will drive RTL-to-GDSII physical design closure, trade-off studies, and collaborate with architecture, RTL, and verification teams to deliver production-quality silicon for data-center scale systems.

Experience Level

Senior — requires substantial ASIC physical-design experience (see Requirements for specific years and technical expectations).

Responsibilities

Deliver physical design and enablement for SoC blocks and subsystems across implementation stages and technologies.

• Drive architectural feasibility studies and power/performance/area trade-off analysis with RTL and architecture teams.
• Lead IO/core subsystem and block physical implementation: synthesis, floorplanning, pin/bus planning, place-and-route, and ECOs through GDSII.
• Implement and validate power and clock distribution, perform congestion analysis, timing closure, IR-drop and electromigration analysis, and physical verification.
• Develop and improve physical design methodologies and flows for the team.
• Evaluate and integrate 3rd-party IP; specify physical-domain requirements for IP integration.
• Collaborate closely with RTL, architecture, and verification engineers to reach sign-off quality.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience required to perform the role.

• Experience scripting with Python, Perl, Bash, or PowerShell.
• 6+ years of ASIC physical-design experience (RTL-to-GDSII) working in advanced process nodes such as 7nm, 14/16nm, 20nm, or 28nm.
• Practical experience with commercial EDA tools (Cadence, Mentor Graphics, Synopsys, or similar) across synthesis, equivalency verification, floorplanning, place and route, power/clock distribution, congestion analysis, timing closure, IR-drop analysis, physical verification, and ECO.
• Deep understanding of sign-off activities: timing, IR/em, and physical verification.
• Ability to analyze QOR metrics, extract design parameters, and drive data-driven decisions for physical implementation.
• Nice-to-have: mentoring or leadership experience; experience integrating IP and specifying IP requirements; knowledge of device physics and custom/semi-custom implementation techniques; experience with DDR, PCIe, and fabric integrations.

Education Requirements

As stated in the posting: Bachelor's degree (BS) plus 8 years, or Master's degree (MS) plus 6 years in Electrical Engineering (EE) or Computer Science (CS).

About the Company

Company: Amazon Web Services

Headquarters: Seattle, Washington, USA

Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides a comprehensive and evolving cloud computing platform that includes infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS). AWS allows business and developers to use a wide range of cloud services for computing power, storage, and content delivery, among others, thus fostering innovation and enabling faster deployment of applications. AWS is designed to be scalable, flexible, and cost-effective across industries worldwide.