Photonics Layout and Design Automation Engineer - Mountain View, CA, United States
$154,900 - $209,600 USD yearly
Originally posted 19 December 2025 by the employer.
About the role
The Photonics Layout and Design Automation Engineer leads activities across schematic driven layout, p-cell development, PDK management, and physical verification. The role focuses on developing CAD infrastructure and automation environments for silicon photonics chips in LiDAR sensing systems.
What you'll do
- Drive and participate across development activities including schematic driven layout, p-cell development, PDK management, and physical verifications. - Drive and participate in software selection procedures to implement an integrated environment for photonics simulation and layout tools. - Participate in establishing a roadmap for photonics design automation. - Work cross-functionally with design, process, and test teams to develop CAD infrastructure facilitating compliance with DfX requirements and foundry design rules. - Manage in-house photonic component model and layout libraries with revision control and regression tests. - Monitor quality escapes and deploy corrective actions using root cause analysis.
What you'll need
- 5+ years of integrated circuit layout and design automation experience, preferably in integrated photonics. - Comprehensive understanding of CAD developments including simulation/layout automation, PDK development and management, physical verification (LVS/DRC), and hardware/software infrastructure management. - Expertise in p-cell development, LVS/DRC run-set development, source code revision control, and/or regression tests. - Proficiency in commercial photonics mask layout software tools from Cadence, Synopsys, Luceda, or Klayout. - Familiarity with the semiconductor fabrication process. - Experience with source code and library management. - Experience with Python and Linux shell scripting.
Nice to have
- Knowledge of silicon photonics and optoelectronic device physics. - Familiarity with commercial photonics simulation software environments from Synopsys, Cadence, Luceda, and Ansys.
Skills: photonics layout, design automation, p-cell development, PDK management, physical verification, Cadence
This role has been open 191 days — well above the 71-day median for EDA/CAD Engineering roles.
EDA/CAD Engineering · EDA Tools
|
Open roles in category
696
|
Median days open
71 d
|
Median salary
$192k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Aeva Technologies | All employers we track in this specialty (696 roles · 75 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 1 | 696 |
| Open roles in the wider Physical Implementation family | 1 | 1491 · 109 employers |
| Median days open | 191 d | 71 d (+120 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $192k |
Skills observed across this category: photonics layout, design automation, p-cell development, PDK management, physical verification, Cadence
Who's hiring in this category
- Cadence Design Systems · 155 open roles · median 152 d
- Synopsys · 62 open roles · median 43 d
- Micron Technology · 44 open roles · median 52 d
- GlobalFoundries · 39 open roles · median 26 d
- Qualcomm · 39 open roles · median 76 d
- Keysight Technologies · 34 open roles · median 79 d
How we counted: 696 open EDA/CAD Engineering (EDA Tools) roles from 75 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 25 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.