Silicon Power Engineer

Salary Range: 125000 to 250000 (Currency: USD) (Pay period: per-year-salary)

Core Responsibilities

Define and evaluate silicon power-management features, including clock gating, power gating, idle states, and dynamic voltage and frequency scaling. Specify expected power savings, performance impact, and conditions for entering and exiting each state.

Develop representative, high-activity, and corner-case workloads for power measurement in simulation, emulation, and silicon. Work with verification and software teams to make workloads reproducible and representative of intended use.

Establish power targets for IP blocks and dies. Produce power rollups across workloads, operating points, and design revisions, including dynamic and leakage power where appropriate.

Run and interpret RTL and gate-level power analysis. Use switching activity, power reports, and design data to identify major contributors, unexpected activity, and gaps against targets.

Partner with RTL teams to evaluate changes such as improved clock enables, operand isolation, reduced unnecessary data movement, and more effective low-power states.

Partner with physical design teams to understand the power impact of synthesis, clock distribution, placement, and implementation choices. Balance proposed savings against timing, area, and performance.

Build and refine power models and analysis flows so architectural estimates can be compared with implementation results and, when available, measured silicon data.

Track power optimizations from proposal through implementation and measurement. Quantify the savings achieved and document any performance or functional tradeoffs.

Communicate power trends, risks, and recommendations to design and architecture teams throughout the silicon development cycle.

Minimum Education and Experience

Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

At least 5 years of relevant experience in ASIC or SoC design, power analysis, low-power design, or silicon power optimization.

Hands-on experience analyzing power from RTL or gate-level designs and using the results to identify design improvements.

Working knowledge of Verilog or SystemVerilog, digital design, and the effects of switching activity, clocks, voltage, and leakage on power.

Experience developing or selecting workloads and activity traces for power estimation, and communicating results to design teams.

Proficiency with scripting or data analysis, preferably using Python.

Preferred Experience

Experience defining and validating clock-gating, power-gating, idle-state, or DVFS features.

Experience with industry-standard RTL or gate-level power analysis tools and automated power regressions.

Experience correlating pre-silicon estimates with lab power measurements and investigating differences.

Familiarity with physical design flows, clock trees, UPF, and power-aware verification.

Experience optimizing power in large compute SoCs or multi-die designs.

Eligibility

In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire. Visa sponsorship is available for this role for qualified candidates.