Senior Principal Physical Design Engineer

Job Summary

As a Senior Principal PD Engineer at NXP India, you will be a technical leader responsible for the physical design implementation of complex, high-performance integrated circuits, from RTL to GDSII. You will drive advanced methodologies, mentor junior engineers, and contribute significantly to the successful tape-out of cutting-edge SoC designs.

Job Responsibilities

• Lead and execute the full physical design flow for complex digital blocks and top-level SoCs, including floorplanning, power planning, synthesis, place and route, clock tree synthesis, static timing analysis (STA), formal verification, and physical verification (DRC/LVS).
• Develop, optimize, and implement advanced physical design methodologies and flows to achieve aggressive performance, power, and area (PPA) targets.
• Perform critical path analysis, identify timing bottlenecks, and implement effective solutions to meet timing closure on challenging designs operating at high frequencies.
• Work closely with front-end design, architectural, and DFT teams to ensure design intent is preserved and to proactively resolve integration issues.
• Drive power integrity (IR/EM) analysis and solutions, ensuring robust power delivery networks.
• Conduct comprehensive physical verification checks (DRC, LVS, DFM) and resolve all issues efficiently.
• Evaluate and recommend new EDA tools, technologies, and methodologies to enhance productivity and design quality.
• Mentor and guide junior and mid-level physical design engineers, providing technical leadership and fostering a collaborative team environment.
• Generate detailed technical documentation, reports, and presentations for design reviews and project milestones.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of design processes and best practices within the physical design team.
  
  

• Bachelors or Masters degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, VLSI Design, or a related field.
• Bachelors degree with 16+ years of professional experience or Masters degree with 14+ years of professional experience.
• Working knowledge on advance tech nodes 16ff and below is highly desirable.
• Expert-level proficiency with industry-standard EDA tools from Synopsys (Fusion Compiler, ICC2, Primetime, Design Compiler), Cadence (Innovus, Tempus, Genus), or Siemens (APR, Calibre).
• Deep understanding and practical experience with all aspects of the physical design flow, including floorplanning, power planning, block integration, P&R, CTS, STA, Formal Verification, and Physical Verification.
• Strong expertise in timing closure, including hierarchical STA, AOCV/POCV, multi-corner/multi-mode analysis, and complex timing constraint debug.
• Proven experience in power integrity analysis (IR/EM) and optimization techniques.
• Solid understanding of signal integrity (SI) issues and solutions.
• Proficiency in scripting languages such as Tcl, Python, and Perl for automation and flow development.
• Familiarity with low-power design techniques (UPF/CPF, clock gating, power gating, multi-Vt).
• Excellent problem-solving, analytical, and debugging skills.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively collaborate with cross-functional teams and mentor junior engineers.
• Prior experience in a technical leadership role, driving projects and influencing technical direction.