Physical Design Engineer - Full Chip Implementation
$200k - $375k/yr
Expert
San Jose, CA, USA
In PersonFully in-person in San Jose; relocation support is available for those moving there.
Hardware EngineeringSilicon & ASIC Design
About the job
Requirements
- 10+ years of experience with chip planning, top-level physical design, and floorplanning.
- Experience with top-level and full-chip closure on advanced process nodes at 5nm and below.
- Experience with Cadence Innovus and Genus or Synopsys Fusion Compiler automated RTL-to-GDSII flows.
- Experience with Synopsys PrimeTime and Cadence Tempus for timing signoff.
- Experience with Pegasus or Calibre for physical verification signoff.
- Experience with hierarchical timing budgeting, constraint management, and ECO closure.
- Experience with Cadence Innovus for top-level assembly, routing, and layout fixes.
Responsibilities
- Own full-chip clocking across all PVT corners and modes.
- Manage multi-mode, multi-corner timing closure at the top level.
- Own timing constraints and hierarchical timing budgeting between the top level and blocks.
- Drive functional and timing ECO closure and achieve final timing signoff for tapeout.
- Own end-to-end physical verification closure at block, subsystem, and full-chip levels across DRC, LVS, ERC, antenna, density, fill, and top-level integration.
- Debug complex physical-verification violations across layout, routing, macros, IP, power grid, rule decks, and tool or setup issues, and fix violations directly in layout using Innovus.
- Build a repeatable, tapeout-ready physical-verification methodology with clean runs, waiver discipline, version control, triage, and final signoff reviews.
- Own full-chip implementation from synthesis through GDSII completion, including floorplanning, place-and-route, clocking, timing analysis, physical verification, and signoffs.
- Collaborate with RTL designers to provide actionable feedback and accelerate product iteration.
Desired Qualifications
- Familiarity with modern machine-learning and large language model architectures.
- Ability to program with Python or another scripting language.
- Familiarity with AI tools for programming or coding.
- Startup experience or comfort working in fast-paced environments.
About the company
Etched designs AI chips and the server racks built around them for AI companies and cloud providers, focusing only on inference, the work of running trained models to answer requests. In 2024, it unveiled a chip hard-wired to run only transformers, the type of AI model behind ChatGPT, after betting at its founding that they would dominate AI. Etched develops its chips, racks, and software together, and each rack links many chips through a shared pool of fast memory so very large models with long inputs can answer quickly. It earns money by selling these complete systems rather than individual chips. Etched was founded in 2022 and is based in San Jose, California.
Company Size
201-500
Company Stage
Series D
Total Funding
$1.6B
Headquarters
San Jose, California
Founded
2022
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Equity is gaining value: Etched's valuation jumped from $5 billion in December 2025 to $21 billion in August 2026.
- Room to grow: Etched's 110 open roles in October 2026 equal over a quarter of its roughly 400-person staff.
- Colleagues include chip veterans: about 15% of Etched's employees came from Nvidia, the biggest maker of AI chips.
What critics are saying
- A rival is further along: chipmaker Cerebras had $510 million in 2025 sales before its $5.5 billion May 2026 IPO.
- Delivery has barely begun: Etched announced its first rack shipment in August 2026 against over $1 billion in orders.
- Expect to be on-site: 93% of Etched's October 2026 job posts describe a fully in-person team.
What makes Etched unique
- Its chips run on less power: Etched runs chip math at under half the voltage of most AI chips.
- It runs its own production: Etched opened a Taiwan factory and an 80,000-square-foot facility near its San Jose base.
- Trading firms back it: Jane Street, Hudson River Trading and Two Sigma invested, and Jane Street is its first customer.
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Benefits
- Health Insurance
- Dental Insurance
- Vision Insurance
- Unlimited Paid Time Off
- Flexible Work Hours
- Remote Work Options
- Paid Vacation
- Paid Sick Leave
- Paid Holidays
- Hybrid Work Options
- Stock Options
- Company Equity