Staff System Software Engineer, RTL-to-GDS Flow Platform

Job Title

Staff System Software Engineer, RTL-to-GDS Flow Platform

Role Summary

Join the VLSI Productivity and Infrastructure team to design and modernize a production RTL-to-GDS platform that orchestrates EDA tool execution, generated collateral, validation checks, and distributed job workflows for large-scale chip design projects. The team supports a large population of chip designers and focuses on reliable, observable, and repeatable implementation flows.

Experience Level

Senior role. The posting requests 12+ years of experience in production EDA, VLSI CAD, RTL-to-GDS, physical design, or engineering workflow systems.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include building and improving the RTL-to-GDS flow infrastructure and operational tooling across implementation stages.

• Design and modernize production RTL-to-GDS flows across synthesis, floorplanning/place-and-route, timing, signoff, ECO, and handoff workflows.
• Extend configuration/YAML systems to represent workflow intent, stage contracts, validation markers, generated artifacts, and backward-compatible behavior.
• Improve legacy launch infrastructure (Make, Tcl, Perl, Python) for runset generation, EDA tool setup, distributed execution, status tracking, and failure diagnosis.
• Implement prelaunch and in-run checks for missing inputs, stale generated files, invalid hooks, bad constraints, and inconsistent design state.
• Develop job-control and observability features for hierarchical workflows: parent-child job attachment, logs, provenance, and structured status.
• Partner with design and CAD teams to debug failures across EDA tools, Linux environments, shared filesystems, schedulers, generated collateral, and configuration layers.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and practical experience for immediate contribution.

• 12+ years building, modernizing, or operating production EDA, VLSI CAD, RTL-to-GDS, physical design, or large engineering workflow systems.
• Hands-on experience with RTL-to-GDS/implementation flows: setup, generated collateral, tool launch, checks, timing/signoff handoff, and debug workflows.
• Strong Tcl and Make experience in real EDA automation environments.
• Practical software engineering skills in Python, Perl, Go, or C++ for tooling and automation work.
• Solid Linux debugging fundamentals and experience improving legacy production systems without disrupting active users.
• Ability to reason about layered configuration, includes/overrides, variable expansion, generated outputs, and validation state.
• Nice-to-have: experience with commercial synthesis/place-and-route/timing/signoff tools, workflow engines, runset generators, distributed schedulers (LSF, Slurm, Grid Engine), and NFS/shared-filesystem issues.

Education Requirements

B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or equivalent practical experience; alternatives by equivalent experience are explicitly accepted.

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.