SoC Physical Design Engineer, PnR - San Jose, United States
Originally posted 21 October 2026 by the employer.
About the role
You will be directly responsible for the physical implementation of design partitions from netlist to tapeout for complex SOC designs.
What you'll do
- Work with the logic design team to understand partition architecture and drive physical aspects early in the design cycle. - Complete netlist to GDS2 implementation for partitions meeting schedule and design goals. - Execute timing, physical, and electrical verification, and drive signoff closure for partitions. - Resolve and improve design and flow issues related to physical design, identify potential solutions, and drive execution.
What you'll need
- Minimum BS degree with 0+ years of experience. - Basic understanding of logic gates. - Knowledge of basic chip architecture, back end chip design flow, physical synthesis, and floor-planning. - Knowledge of place and route (PnR), power grid, timing (STA), physical design verification (DRC/LVS), and EMIR (Redhawk/Totem/Voltus).
Nice to have
- Previous internship/co-op, project work, or relevant coursework in computer architecture, VLSI, design, logic design, or circuit design. - Experience with Verilog, VHDL, Python, Perl, TCL, and/or SPICE.
Skills: PnR, netlist to GDS2, timing closure, physical verification, signoff
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 61-day median for Physical Design roles.
Physical Design · Physical Design
|
Open roles in category
656
|
Median days open
61 d
|
Median salary
$187k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Apple | All employers we track in this specialty (656 roles · 79 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 10 | 656 |
| Open roles in the wider Physical Implementation family | 29 | 1464 · 110 employers |
| Median days open | 23 d | 61 d (−38 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $187k |
Skills observed across this category: PnR, netlist to GDS2, timing closure, physical verification, signoff
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 119 open roles · median 44 d
- AMD · 61 open roles · median 26 d
- Synopsys · 38 open roles · median 35 d
- Intel Corporation · 36 open roles · median 14 d
- NVIDIA · 36 open roles · median 70 d
- Broadcom · 32 open roles · median 100 d
How we counted: 656 open Physical Design (Physical Design) roles from 79 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 21 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.