Physical Design Engineer, New Grad - San Jose, California, United States
$120,000 - $150,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 27 October 2026 by the employer.
About the role
As a new grad Physical Design Engineer, you will run and improve the RTL to GDS flow on advanced process nodes. The team takes Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU) designs through synthesis, place and route, and sign-off on TSMC advanced nodes using Cadence tools.
What you'll do
- Run synthesis and place and route using Cadence Genus, Innovus, and Cerebrus. - Write scripts in TCL and Python to automate and improve the physical design flow. - Help physical designers debug timing, congestion, and design rule issues. - Work with tool vendors to report bugs and test flow improvements. - Maintain flow documentation and regression testing.
What you'll need
- B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science. - Coursework or project experience in VLSI or digital IC design. - Understanding of the RTL to GDS flow, including synthesis and place and route. - Scripting experience in TCL, Perl, or Python.
Nice to have
- M.S. or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science. - Experience with Cadence or Synopsys physical design tools. - Familiarity with static timing analysis. - Familiarity with physical design rules on advanced process nodes. - Experience using AI tools such as Claude for flow development. - Internship or tape-out experience, including class or university tape-outs.
Skills: synthesis, place and route, Innovus, Genus, Tcl
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 64-day median for Physical Design roles.
Physical Design · Physical Design
|
Open roles in category
682
|
Median days open
64 d
|
Median salary
$186k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | SambaNova | All employers we track in this specialty (682 roles · 81 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 2 | 682 |
| Open roles in the wider Physical Implementation family | 2 | 1531 · 112 employers |
| Median days open | 52 d | 64 d (−12 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $186k |
Skills observed across this category: synthesis, place and route, Innovus, Genus, Tcl
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 121 open roles · median 49 d
- AMD · 63 open roles · median 32 d
- Intel Corporation · 38 open roles · median 20 d
- Synopsys · 38 open roles · median 42 d
- Broadcom · 37 open roles · median 98 d
- NVIDIA · 36 open roles · median 68 d
How we counted: 682 open Physical Design (Physical Design) roles from 81 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 28 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.