Physical Design, Intern (Summer 2027)
$50 USD hourly
Work on digital physical design flows supporting mixed signal and photonics design methodologies.
Originally posted 13 November 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role is on the team responsible for defining and implementing the flow and methodology for the digital physical design of Lightmatter's chips.
What you'll do
- Learn the Lightmatter physical design flow.
- Improve the physical design flow through scripting in languages such as Python.
- Investigate usage of AI to improve and augment the physical design flow.
- Work with members of the physical design team on physical implementations or analysis.
- Work with other teams such as the analog design team or photonics team to collaborate on and improve mixed signal and mixed signal + photonics design methodologies.
What you'll need
- Currently enrolled in a Masters or PhD program.
- Familiarity with TCL or Python scripting.
- Knowledge of physical design tools and flows.
- Understanding of the concepts of synthesis, place and route, and LVS/DRC.
- Understanding of VLSI design fundamentals.
Nice to have
- Research, lab, or prior internship experience in physical design involving photonics, semiconductors, or AI hardware.
- Publications, projects, or open-source contributions related to physical design or python programming.
- Prior experience or coursework relevant to physical design.
Skills: place and route, synthesis, LVS/DRC, TCL, VLSI
More semiconductor jobs: Lightmatter jobs · Physical design jobs · Boston jobs
First seen in our index 0 days ago, well below the 62-day median for Physical Design roles.
Physical Design · Physical Design
|
Open roles in category
753
|
Median days since first seen
62 d
|
Category median salary (all employers)
$187k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Lightmatter | All employers we track in this specialty (753 roles · 90 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 5 | 753 |
| Open roles in the wider Physical Implementation family | 10 | 1689 · 121 employers |
| Median days since first seen | 112 d | 62 d (−50 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | n/a | $187k |
Skills observed across this category: place and route, synthesis, LVS/DRC, TCL, VLSI
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 119 open roles · median 66 d
- AMD · 66 open roles · median 45 d
- Broadcom · 53 open roles · median 24 d
- NVIDIA · 46 open roles · median 85 d
- Synopsys · 44 open roles · median 43 d
- Apple · 32 open roles · median 8 d
How we counted: 753 open Physical Design (Physical Design) roles from 90 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 14 Nov 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there, and is counted in the wider Physical Implementation family row. Days are counted from when our index first saw each posting, not from the employer's original posting date.