Senior Physical Design Engineer - CA, Santa Clara, United States
$136,000 - $264,500 USD yearly
Originally posted 4 August 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role drives physical design and timing closure from netlist to GDS.
What you'll do
- Drive physical design and timing from netlist to gds. - Partner with mixed signal teams to integrate Analog IO’s and macros. - Work on multi-mode and multi-corner timing closure, RC extraction, Cross talk, IR drop and EM analysis. - Work with the Front-end teams to create and update timing constraints. - Perform Physical verification DRC, ERC, LVS, Antenna checks and other checks. - Debug timing violations, implement functional and timing ECO’s, and perform formal verification.
What you'll need
- BS in Electrical or Computer Engineering (or equivalent experience) with 6+ years of experience, or MS (or equivalent experience) with 3+ years of experience in physical design. - Experience with Synopsys or Cadence place and route, physical design, and timing tools. - Ability to form methodologies and automate flows.
Nice to have
- Scan insertion and DFT knowledge.
Skills: physical design, netlist to gds, timing closure, DRC, LVS
This role has been open 164 days — well above the 64-day median for Physical Design roles.
Physical Design · Physical Design
|
Open roles in category
673
|
Median days open
64 d
|
Median salary
$185k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | NVIDIA | All employers we track in this specialty (673 roles · 79 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 36 | 673 |
| Open roles in the wider Physical Implementation family | 73 | 1489 · 109 employers |
| Median days open | 66 d | 64 d (+2 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $185k |
Skills observed across this category: physical design, netlist to gds, timing closure, DRC, LVS
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 123 open roles · median 47 d
- AMD · 64 open roles · median 27 d
- Intel Corporation · 40 open roles · median 16 d
- Synopsys · 37 open roles · median 38 d
- NVIDIA (this employer) · 36 open roles · median 66 d
- Broadcom · 34 open roles · median 103 d
How we counted: 673 open Physical Design (Physical Design) roles from 79 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 24 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.