Lead Engineer-Physical Design

Lead / Principal Physical Design Engineer (Team Lead)

Location: Ahmedabad, India (Sasken Silicon)Function: ASIC Backend / Physical DesignReports to: PD Engineering Manager / Silicon Delivery HeadTeam: Leads a pod of ~10 juniorto–mid PD engineers (PD, STA, DFT, PV)Engagement context: Advanced-node (Intel 18A / sub-3nm) backend programs

Role Summary

We are looking for an experienced Physical Design lead to own the backend implementation of a high-performance digital IP on an advanced process node, from synthesis through tapeout-ready GDS-II. Beyond hands-on technical depth, this person must be able to lead and grow a team of ~10 junior PD engineers — distributing work, reviewing quality, unblocking the team, and driving convergence against tight QoR and schedule targets.

This is a delivery-ownership role: the lead is accountable for floorplan strategy, timing/power/area closure, signoff quality, and on-time tapeout, while mentoring less-experienced engineers to operate at advanced-node standards.

Key Responsibilities

Technical ownership

• Own the full RTL-to-GDS physical design flow: synthesis, floorplanning, placement, CTS, routing, and signoff.
• Define floorplan and power-delivery strategy, including advanced-node considerations such as backside power delivery (PowerVia) and gate-all-around / RibbonFET cell handling where applicable.
• Drive timing closure across all PVT corners (MMMC, AOCV/POCV), including setup/hold, signal integrity, and complex timing ECOs.
• Own physical verification closure (DRC/LVS, antenna, PERC), power/EM/IR integrity, and thermal / self-heating (SHE) signoff.
• Manage memory and macro integration (e.g., large SRAM arrays), congestion management, and high pin-density datapath closure.
• Set up and validate the PD flow on a new PDK, including tool/flow bring-up and "pipe-clean" trial runs.

Team leadership (critical)

• Lead a pod of ~10 junior PD engineers: assign blocks/tasks, set technical direction, and balance load dynamically across project phases.
• Review the team's work — floorplans, timing reports, signoff results — and enforce quality gates before handoff.
• Mentor and upskill junior engineers on advanced-node methodology, debugging, and tool usage.
• Run review-gate checkpoints (floorplan signoff, CTS targets, release candidates) and present status, risks, and QoR to internal and customer stakeholders.
• Coordinate handoffs with RTL/DV, DFT, and PV/signoff specialists, and drive rapid issue resolution on ECOs and debug requests.

Required Qualifications

• Education: B.E./B.Tech or M.E./M.Tech in Electronics, Electrical, VLSI, or related field.
• Experience: 10+ years in ASIC physical design, with a strong track record of taping out production silicon. (Adjust per band: ~8+ for Lead, ~12+ for Principal.)
• Team experience: Demonstrated experience leading/mentoring a team of PD engineers and owning delivery for a block or full chip — not just individual-contributor work.
• Full-flow depth: Hands-on ownership across synthesis, PnR, CTS, routing, STA, and physical/electrical signoff.
• Advanced-node experience: Proven work at 7nm/5nm/3nm or below; FinFET closure mandatory, gate-all-around / advanced-node exposure a strong plus.
• Tools: Strong hands-on with the Synopsys + Siemens flow used on this program:
• Synthesis & PnR: Synopsys Fusion Compiler (or Design Compiler + ICC2)
• Timing: Synopsys PrimeTime (incl. SI / ECO)
• Extraction: Synopsys StarRC
• Formal/LEC: Synopsys Formality
• Physical verification: Siemens Calibre (nmDRC, nmLVS, PERC, multi-patterning)
• DFT: Siemens Tessent (scan, MemoryBIST, boundary scan)
• Power/IR/EM: Ansys RedHawk-SC
• (Cadence Innovus/Tempus/Quantus exposure is a plus for flow flexibility.)
• Methodology: Solid grasp of low-power design (multi-Vt, clock/power gating, multi-voltage domains), CDC handling, DFT integration, and signoff-quality QoR metrics (WNS/TNS, 0-violation DRC/LVS, EM, thermal).
• Scripting: TCL and Python (Perl a plus) for flow automation and productivity.

Preferred / Nice-to-Have

• Direct experience on Intel 18A (RibbonFET, PowerVia / backside power) or another foundry's gate-all-around / backside-power node.
• Experience on high-throughput DSP / wireless / MIMO datapaths, systolic arrays, or large matrix-compute blocks.
• Experience working with foundry PDKs at early maturity (PDK 0.9/1.0) and managing flow risk on evolving RTL.
• Experience operating in a fixed-timeline, milestone/review-gate delivery model with customer-facing checkpoints.
• Familiarity with HPC compute environments (large-RAM nodes) for advanced-node layouts.

What Success Looks Like (First 6–9 Months)

• Stands up and validates the PD flow on the target PDK and completes a clean trial run.
• Locks a floorplan and power-grid strategy that clears the first review gate.
• Brings the pod of ~10 engineers to predictable, reviewable output with consistent quality.
• Drives the design to a tapeout-ready, 0-violation GDS-II within the agreed schedule.

Core Competencies We Screen For

• Technical depth at advanced nodes and the leadership maturity to run a 10-person team.
• Ability to break a large backend program into block-level tasks and delegate effectively.
• Calm, structured problem-solving under schedule pressure.
• Clear communication of status, risk, and trade-offs to both engineers and stakeholders.