Physical Design Engineer - DSP Team - Austin, Texas, United States of America, United States
$164,000 - $246,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 8 April 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role works on synthesis, structured placement, clock tree synthesis (CTS), and overall physical design convergence deliverables, including custom design to achieve high performance with power containment.
What you'll do
- Update physical implementation flows for optimum PPA (power, performance, and area). - Drive the development of semi-custom design techniques to maximize utilization, performance, and power efficiency. - Use and extend design methodologies to achieve optimum PPA through scripting. - Use tools such as Fusion Compiler to execute architecture and design of complex blocks. - Run advanced power checks across multiple blocks to ensure design specifications are met. - Collaborate across physical design and logic teams on timing, clock structures, and convergence.
What you'll need
- Bachelor's degree in Science, Engineering, or a related field with 6+ years of ASIC design, verification, validation, integration, or related experience (or Master's degree with 5+ years, or PhD with 4+ years). - Experience in ASIC physical design, synthesis, or related work. - Proficiency in P&R, timing analysis, and CAD tools such as Synopsys FC/DC, ICC2 or Cadence Genus, Innovus. - Understanding of logic optimization for high-speed design implementation, clock structures, and power optimization.
Nice to have
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or Computer Engineering. - Experience with CPU or GPU design. - Experience with architecture and design tools. - Experience with scripting tools and programming languages.
Skills: PPA, semi-custom design, scripting, P&R, timing analysis, CAD tools
This role has been open 200 days — well above the 65-day median for Physical Design roles.
Physical Design · Physical Design
|
Open roles in category
673
|
Median days open
65 d
|
Median salary
$185k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Qualcomm | All employers we track in this specialty (673 roles · 79 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 123 | 673 |
| Open roles in the wider Physical Implementation family | 170 | 1491 · 109 employers |
| Median days open | 48 d | 65 d (−17 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $185k |
Skills observed across this category: PPA, semi-custom design, scripting, P&R, timing analysis, CAD tools
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm (this employer) · 124 open roles · median 48 d
- AMD · 63 open roles · median 27 d
- Intel Corporation · 40 open roles · median 17 d
- Synopsys · 37 open roles · median 39 d
- NVIDIA · 36 open roles · median 67 d
- Broadcom · 35 open roles · median 104 d
How we counted: 673 open Physical Design (Physical Design) roles from 79 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.