Our latest CAD, EDA and PDK jobs
CAD, EDA and PDK engineers create and support the infrastructure used to design and manufacture integrated circuits. Their work connects semiconductor process technology with chip design teams, ensuring tools, models, rules and workflows are accurate, efficient and ready for tapeout.
These professionals may develop design environments, automate engineering workflows, validate process design kits, maintain verification decks, integrate EDA tools or improve design methodologies across analog, digital, RF and mixed-signal projects.
FAQs: CAD, EDA and PDK recruitment
CAD and EDA roles refer to engineers who build, maintain and validate the design automation tools, flows and scripting for essential semiconductor chips. PDK describes those who develop and model process rules, layout constraints, parasitics, extraction decks and verification for foundry processes. These roles sit between process engineering and IC design, enabling designers to deliver tapeouts reliably.
Demand for CAD, EDA and PDK engineers is robust, with positions available all around the world. As the semiconductor industry grows – especially to meet the growing demands of industries such as AI, automotive and edge computing – the need for engineers with deep cross-domain skills is strong. However, these roles require both specialist process and tool knowledge, which means the candidate pool is limited. We list roles across the UK, USA and Europe, highlighting the global demand for these experts.
Pay varies by geography, seniority and company. In the UK, senior architect roles we list often exceed £150,000. In Europe, equivalent roles commonly exceed €100,000, before benefits such as bonuses and equity. Mid-level roles may start lower. Ultimately, compensation is strongly dependent on region, experience, company scale and additional benefits like bonuses or equity.
When helping businesses find the right talent, we first take a detailed hiring brief to understand your needs. We then map the market to source active and passive candidates, screen and shortlist the right individuals and coordinate interviews and feedback. Our goal is to make high-quality matches that fill the needs of both employer and candidate to ensure long-term relationships.
We cover roles such as EDA/tooling engineers, CAD automation/integration engineers, PDK development and validation engineers, verification roles supporting CAD/PDK flows, tool/flow architects and hybrid positions linking tools, layout and design teams.
We’re a global agency with seven offices around the world, including the UK, Germany, France and the USA. Across our team, we have more than 70 specialist consultants, who have years of direct experience in the sector and a deep knowledge of the needs of the semiconductor industry. We can also support relocation when required to help candidates find the most suitable roles, wherever they’re located.
We started out as a specialist semiconductor recruitment agency and have more than 25 years of experience in the sector. This means we have industry-leading knowledge of what businesses need. Because we focus exclusively on deep tech fields, we offer domain expertise, better candidate matching and access to many unadvertised roles. This saves you time and increases your chances of landing a role aligned to your skills and ambition.
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