Principal Physical Design Engineer

This client is looking for a Principal Physical Design Engineer to join their semiconductor R&D team in Leuven, working on the physical implementation of complex ASIC and SoC designs.

This is a hands-on Principal Physical Design Engineer position covering the full RTL-to-GDS flow, with responsibility for implementation, optimisation, timing closure and backend methodology development. The role also offers the opportunity to provide technical guidance and mentoring to other engineers without moving into a formal people management position.

Key responsibilities

• Lead and execute the complete physical design flow from RTL to GDS, including synthesis, floorplanning, power planning, place & route, clock tree synthesis (CTS), static timing analysis (STA) and physical verification
• Drive optimisation of designs against challenging performance, power and area targets
• Analyse and resolve complex timing and implementation challenges across advanced digital designs
• Develop and improve physical design methodologies, flows and automation to improve efficiency and design quality
• Work closely with architecture, digital design and verification teams to identify and resolve implementation issues
• Contribute to design and architecture reviews from a physical implementation perspective
• Provide technical guidance and mentoring to other Physical Design Engineers
• Support the adoption and optimisation of EDA tools and backend methodologies

Position Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Microelectronics or a related field
• Strong experience across the complete RTL-to-GDS flow, with a proven track record of successful tape-outs
• Strong experience with industry-standard EDA tools, with expertise in either Cadence or Synopsys
• Strong understanding of STA, timing closure and physical implementation methodologies
• Experience with low-power design techniques and optimisation
• Experience providing technical leadership or mentoring within a Physical Design environment

For more information on this Principal Physical Design Engineer role or others, please contact Jordan Browne at IC Resources.