Senior Engineer, Physical Design AI/ML - San Jose, California, United States
$138,000 - $206,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 31 August 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role involves applying AI/Machine Learning tools to improve design simulation accuracy and throughput in predicting design performance, power, and area (PPA) for advanced logic nodes.
What you'll do
- Design, build, and implement machine learning and generative models to optimize chip layout designs to maximize PPA efficiency.
- Collaborate on automating all aspects of exploratory PDK generation, including developing automated QA systems.
- Apply machine learning techniques to extract and develop correlations among data in different domains, at different operating conditions.
- Develop internal benchmarking capabilities based on available data, modeling, or learning from multiple sources.
What you'll need
- RTL synthesis, place and route, and timing analysis skills.
- Understanding of clock and power delivery network schemes.
- Hands-on experience on machine learning or deep learning projects for scientific and/or engineering applications (e.g., regression, surrogate modeling, inverse design, graph neural networks).
- Strong Python and/or C++ skills, including expertise in machine learning packages like PyTorch and Tensorflow.
- Experience in using Bayesian optimization and/or active learning frameworks for design space exploration.
- Expertise with agentic AI frameworks (LangGraph, CrewAI, ADK).
Nice to have
- Experience with setting up and optimization of a local, private, compute cluster to run latest LLM models.
- Proficiency in EDA tools for synthesis and layout.
- Prior experience using generative AI for chip design/optimization.
Skills: AI/ML tools, chip layout designs, PPA efficiency, PDK generation, machine learning
This role has been open 22 days — well below the 68-day median for AI/ML Hardware Engineering roles.
AI/ML Hardware Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
514
|
Median days open
68 d
|
Median salary
$232k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Samsung Semiconductor | All employers we track in this specialty (514 roles · 75 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 2 | 514 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 15 | 5948 · 143 employers |
| Median days open | 53 d | 68 d (−15 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $232k |
Skills observed across this category: AI/ML tools, chip layout designs, PPA efficiency, PDK generation, machine learning
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 106 open roles · median 101 d
- NVIDIA · 84 open roles · median 63 d
- AMD · 46 open roles · median 61 d
- Micron Technology · 33 open roles · median 43 d
- Mobileye · 21 open roles · median 57 d
- Analog Devices · 14 open roles · median 26 d
How we counted: 514 open AI/ML Hardware Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 75 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 23 Sept 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 Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.