Sr. Physical Design Engineer, Annapurna Labs

Job Title

Sr. Physical Design Engineer, Annapurna Labs

Role Summary

Work on physical implementation and optimization of custom SoCs used in AWS Machine Learning servers. The role partners with RTL, architecture, and system teams to deliver RTL-to-GDSII physical design, ensure sign-off quality, and develop physical design methodologies.

Experience Level

Senior — requires substantial hands-on ASIC physical design experience (see Requirements for specifics); expected to drive complex block and subsystem closures and mentor junior engineers.

Responsibilities

Key responsibilities include:

• Drive architectural feasibility studies and power-performance-area tradeoffs with RTL and architecture teams.
• Implement IO/core subsystems and blocks from synthesis through sign-off (floorplanning, place & route, timing closure, IR drop, physical verification, ECO).
• Develop and improve physical design flows and methodologies; automate tasks via scripting.
• Evaluate and integrate 3rd-party IP; specify IP requirements for physical implementation.
• Collaborate across teams to resolve integration and QOR issues at datacenter scale.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience:

• 6+ years of hands-on ASIC physical design (RTL-to-GDSII) on advanced nodes (examples: 7nm, 14/16nm, 20nm, 28nm).
• Practical experience with synthesis, equivalency verification, floor planning, bus/pin planning, place & route, power/clock distribution, congestion analysis, timing closure, IR drop analysis, ECO, and physical verification.
• Strong knowledge of sign-off activities (timing, IR/EM, physical verification).
• Experience using commercial EDA tools (examples: Cadence, Mentor Graphics, Synopsys) for physical implementation and verification.
• Scripting experience in Python, Perl, Bash, or PowerShell for flow automation and analysis.

Nice-to-have:

• Experience mentoring, leading, or managing junior engineers.
• 4+ years integrating IP and driving IP requirements in the physical domain.
• Knowledge of device physics, custom/semi-custom implementation techniques.
• Experience addressing physical-design challenges for interfaces/protocols such as DDR, PCIe, and network fabrics.
• Experience extracting design parameters, QOR metrics, and analyzing trends.

Education Requirements

Specified: BS with 8 years relevant experience, or MS with 6 years relevant experience in Electrical Engineering or Computer Science. (These degree/experience combinations were listed by the employer.)

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.