Physical Design Engineer - Block Level, Subsystem Implementation

Etched is building a new category of AI hardware: frontier inference clusters. As a Physical Design Engineer, you will own block-level implementation from synthesis through GDSII sign-off. You will drive Block-level & Subsystem PPA Optimization, and collaborate closely with RTL designers to provide actionable feedback, ensuring we iterate at unprecedented speeds to bring our products to market.

* Own block-level and/or subsystem physical design end to end, including floorplanning, synthesis, placement, clock tree synthesis, and routing through GDSII.

* Drive block-level timing closure across all corners and modes, including constraint development, STA debug, and functional and timing ECO implementation.

* Close block-level signoff across EM, IR drop, RC extraction and correlation, and physical verification (DRC, LVS, antenna).

* Generate abstracts, views, and timing budgets for clean hierarchical integration of your blocks into the top level.

* Collaborate with RTL Designers and provide Physical Design feedback to improve PPA.

* Continuously improve the PPA of owned blocks and contribute learnings back into the shared RTL-to-GDSII flow.

* Supervise physical design work outsourced to 3rd party services and be accountable for the quality and closure of delivered blocks.

You may be a good fit if you have

* 5-10+ years of previous experience with PD

* Tools, flow, and design methodology from RTL synthesis to GDSII sign-off

* Experience with back-end design and timing closure on advanced process nodes (5nm and below)

* Experience with Cadence (Innovus, Genus) or Synopsys (Fusion Compiler) automated RTL-to-GDSII flows

* Experience with sign-off tools (PrimeTime, Tempus, Voltus, etc.)

* Experience with UPF-based low power design methodology, power verification, synthesis, scan insertion/ATPG, formal verification, floorplanning, placement, CTS, routing, IR drop, and EM/antenna analysis

* Scripting ability in Tcl, Python, or Perl for flow automation and debug

* Deeply creative and able to think from first principles