Cryo RFIC Design Engineer, Quantum - United States

Originally posted 28 September 2026 by the employer.

About the role

This role involves developing high-performance RF and microwave integrated circuits and reusable IP for advanced semiconductor applications, including cryogenic CMOS and quantum systems. It focuses on driving RFIC designs from architecture through electromagnetic-aware layout, tapeout, and silicon characterization.

What you'll do

• Design and develop RF and microwave integrated circuits and reusable IP, including low-noise amplifiers, power amplifiers, mixers, oscillators, VCOs, frequency synthesizers, RF switches, phase shifters, and impedance-matching networks.
• Own RFIC development from architecture and transistor-level design through schematic simulation, electromagnetic-aware layout, physical verification, tapeout, and silicon characterization.
• Perform comprehensive RF circuit analysis across process, voltage, and temperature, including S-parameters, noise figure, gain, linearity, stability, phase noise, power, impedance matching, and post-layout parasitic effects.
• Perform or drive electromagnetic simulation and modeling of RF passive structures, interconnects, transmission lines, inductors, transformers, matching networks, and critical layout structures.
• Optimize RF circuit performance for power, bandwidth, noise, linearity, area, process variation, package/interconnect parasitics, and operating temperature, including cryogenic conditions where applicable.
• Define RF silicon test structures and characterization plans, analyze measured data, debug performance issues, and correlate hardware results with circuit and electromagnetic simulations.

What you'll need

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Microelectronics, Applied Physics, or a related field.
• Minimum 5 years of relevant RF, microwave, or analog integrated circuit design experience.
• Demonstrated experience taking RF or microwave integrated circuits through schematic design, simulation, layout, DRC/LVS, parasitic extraction, tapeout, and silicon validation.
• Strong knowledge of RF design fundamentals including impedance matching, S-parameters, stability, noise, linearity, phase noise, RF power, passive networks, and transmission-line effects.
• Proficiency with industry-standard RFIC design, circuit simulation, electromagnetic simulation, layout, physical verification, and post-layout extraction environments.
• Experience with RF measurement concepts and test equipment such as vector network analyzers, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, noise-figure measurement, and RF probing.

Nice to have

• Master’s degree or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Microelectronics, RF/Microwave Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience with cryogenic RFICs, quantum readout/control electronics, millimeter-wave circuits, wireless/RF front ends, or other advanced RF applications.
• Familiarity with CMOS device and passive-component behavior, compact-model limitations, and interconnect effects at RF, microwave, or cryogenic operating conditions.
• Experience designing advanced RF blocks such as LNAs, PAs, mixers, VCOs, PLLs/frequency synthesizers, RF switches, phase shifters, or integrated matching networks.
• Experience with on-wafer RF characterization and correlation of measured results to circuit, device, EM, and package models.
• Familiarity with design or characterization automation using Python, SKILL, Tcl, MATLAB, or equivalent scripting environments.

Skills: RF and microwave integrated circuits, low-noise amplifiers, VCOs, frequency synthesizers, S-parameters