Physical Design Engineer Flow and Methodologies
EtchedVisit Etched website
Etched is an AI-hardware company building rack-scale frontier inference clusters.
San Jose, United States
Funding history
About Etched
Etched co-designs chips, racks, software, and manufacturing systems for efficient inference of frontier AI models, targeting throughput, latency, cost, and power efficiency across prefill and decode workloads.
Skills
Candidate Availability
Required and preferred rules are kept separate and reflect the wording in the original posting.
About the Role
You will architect and maintain automated RTL-to-GDSII flows and physical-design CAD infrastructure. You will automate regression and release workflows, develop dashboards, optimize tools and PPA, create power-grid and floorplanning flows, establish timing correlation, and audit third-party physical-design deliverables.
Requirements
- 5–10+ years of physical-design or physical-design methodology and CAD experience
- Experience building automated RTL-to-GDSII flows used by multiple block owners
- Experience creating block-level and full-chip power-grid meshes and performing EM or IR analysis
- Experience with DRC-clean floorplanning flows and automated checks
- Experience with Cadence Innovus and Genus or Synopsys Fusion Compiler
- Experience with PPA tuning and timing correlation
- Experience integrating PrimeTime, Tempus, Voltus, Pegasus, or Calibre into production flows
- Experience with backend design on 5 nm or smaller process nodes
- Experience with UPF low-power methodology and multi-mode multi-corner setup
- Strong Tcl and Python skills
Responsibilities
- Architect, build, and maintain automated RTL-to-GDSII flows
- Automate physical-design regressions, run management, and flow-configuration releases
- Build CAD infrastructure, qualify tools, and manage compute and licenses
- Develop dashboards for timing, physical-verification, and utilization trends
- Optimize tool flows and evaluate EDA-vendor features
- Define reference flows, QoR targets, and delivery checklists for third-party services
- Debug flow issues and encode durable methodology fixes
- Create block-level and full-chip power-grid meshes
- Create and maintain DRC-clean floorplanning flows and signoff checks
- Drive PPA tuning and timing correlation across implementation and signoff environments
Benefits
- Medical, dental, and vision coverage with generous premium coverage
- USD 500 monthly credit for waiving medical benefits
- USD 2,500 monthly housing subsidy for employees living within walking distance of the office
- Relocation support to San Jose
- Wellness benefits for fitness and mental health
- Daily office lunch and dinner
- Unlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification