Principal Physical Design Engineer - Austin (Oakhill, Office), United States
Originally posted 26 September 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role involves owning end-to-end physical design execution for advanced semiconductor products, driving delivery from RTL to silicon.
What you'll do
- Lead physical design execution including floorplanning, synthesis, place & route, CTS, routing, STA, PDN, PDV, and signoff.
- Drive timing, power, IR/EM, and physical verification closure for tapeout readiness.
- Deliver optimized PPA (Power, Performance, Area) across complex designs.
- Define and deploy physical design methodologies.
- Drive automation, flow optimization, and tool innovation.
- Collaborate with architecture, RTL, verification, and product teams for design convergence.
What you'll need
- Bachelor’s or Master’s in Electrical / Electronics Engineering or related field.
- 10+ years of experience in ASIC / SoC physical design.
- Strong knowledge of industry EDA tools (Synopsys, Cadence flows).
- Full RTL-to-GDSII implementation flow.
- Floorplanning, synthesis, PNR, CTS, routing.
- STA and signoff methodologies.
- Physical verification (DRC/LVS/ERC).
- Advanced node implementation (≤ 16nm / 5nm).
- Low power design (UPF/CLP).
- Scripting in Python, TCL, and Perl.
Nice to have
- Experience in high-reliability SoCs.
- Exposure to AI-driven design methodologies and automation.
Skills: floorplanning, synthesis, place & route, STA, signoff, RTL-to-GDSII
This role has been open 14 days — well below the 60-day median for Physical Design roles.
Physical Design · Physical Design
|
Open roles in category
683
|
Median days open
60 d
|
Median salary
$185k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | NXP Semiconductors | All employers we track in this specialty (683 roles · 78 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 22 | 683 |
| Open roles in the wider Physical Implementation family | 44 | 1473 · 107 employers |
| Median days open | 37 d | 60 d (−23 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $185k |
Skills observed across this category: floorplanning, synthesis, place & route, STA, signoff, RTL-to-GDSII
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 131 open roles · median 39 d
- AMD · 62 open roles · median 18 d
- NVIDIA · 42 open roles · median 64 d
- Broadcom · 36 open roles · median 89 d
- Synopsys · 35 open roles · median 40 d
- Intel Corporation · 29 open roles · median 10 d
How we counted: 683 open Physical Design (Physical Design) roles from 78 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 10 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.