Director of Physical Design
Lead the physical design organization delivering ultra-low-power microcontroller (MCU) products from floorplanning through tape-out.
Originally posted 6 February 2026 by the employer. Relisted by the employer on 30 October 2026.
About the role
The Director of Physical Design leads and scales the physical implementation organization for ultra-low-power microcontroller (MCU) products. The role is based on-site 5 days a week in NW Austin and oversees design methodology, implementation, and sign-off through tape-out.
What you'll do
- Define and execute the physical design strategy and roadmaps for low-power MCU product lines.
- Build, mentor, and direct a global physical design team across implementation, methodology, and sign-off.
- Oversee full-chip and block-level physical design, including floorplanning, power planning, clock tree synthesis (CTS), place & route (P&R), timing closure, and physical verification (DRC/LVS).
- Lead sign-off activities including EM/IR, reliability sign-off, and power analysis while optimizing PPA trade-offs.
- Partner cross-functionally with architecture, RTL, analog/mixed-signal, product engineering, and foundry teams to align on PDK updates, design rules, and mixed-signal IP integration.
- Own physical design schedules, resource allocation, risk management, and tape-out readiness to deliver first-silicon success.
What you'll need
- Bachelor’s or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
- 15+ years of physical design experience on complex SoCs, with at least 5 years in leadership roles.
- Proven track record of delivering multiple chips to production.
- Expertise in low-power design techniques such as UPF, clock gating, multi-Vt, power gating, DVFS, and retention.
- Deep hands-on experience with physical design tools from Synopsys, Cadence, or Mentor across advanced process nodes (40nm, 22nm, 12nm, and below).
- Strong understanding of MCU architectures and embedded system constraints.
Nice to have
- Experience with mixed-signal SoCs and integration of analog IP.
- Background in high-volume consumer or industrial MCU products.
- Familiarity with security-focused or safety-certified MCU designs (e.g., ISO 26262).
- Experience building and scaling distributed engineering teams.
Skills: floorplanning, power planning, clock tree synthesis, place & route, timing closure, physical verification
More semiconductor jobs: Physical design jobs · Austin jobs
This role has been open 99 days — well above the 59-day median for Physical Design roles.
Physical Design · Physical Design
|
Open roles in category
688
|
Median days open
59 d
|
Category median salary (all employers)
$185k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Ambiq Micro | All employers we track in this specialty (688 roles · 82 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 1 | 688 |
| Open roles in the wider Physical Implementation family | 1 | 1547 · 113 employers |
| Median days open | 99 d | 59 d (+40 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $185k |
Skills observed across this category: floorplanning, power planning, clock tree synthesis, place & route, timing closure, physical verification
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 109 open roles · median 53 d
- AMD · 63 open roles · median 32 d
- Synopsys · 39 open roles · median 44 d
- Intel Corporation · 38 open roles · median 22 d
- Broadcom · 37 open roles · median 100 d
- NVIDIA · 37 open roles · median 69 d
How we counted: 688 open Physical Design (Physical Design) roles from 82 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 30 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Physical Implementation family row. Figures refresh nightly.