ASIC Physical Design Engineer - Power, Senior

Positron AI; United States; On-site; USD 200,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Positron AI is seeking a Senior Physical Design Engineer - Power to lead power estimation, optimization and verification for key blocks of our AI accelerator roadmap. You will collaborate with senior technical leadership to refine our power methodology from architectural modeling through silicon validation, enabling top-tier performance-per-watt.

You will drive cross-domain power strategies, build accurate models, and implement techniques like clock gating, power gating and DVFS to meet

Qualifications

• 8+ years ASIC design/implementation with a focus on power.
• Hands-on low-power design techniques.
• Experience with UPF/CPF power spec and verification.
• Proficiency with power analysis tools (PrimePower, Joules).
• Experience with advanced process nodes.
• A solid grasp of RTL design and its impact on chip power.
• Strong Tcl and/or Python scripting for analysis.

Responsibilities

• Own power approaches for blocks and subsystems across power domains.
• Build and maintain accurate power models across the development lifecycle.
• Implement and drive power optimization techniques including clock gating, operand isolation, power gating, voltage islands, and multi-Vt optimization.
• Collaborate with Architecture, RTL, Backend, Firmware, Thermal, Packaging, and System Engineering teams.
• Run power-aware simulation and UPF verification for your blocks.
• Apply AI-driven techniques to improve power analysis and identification of optimization opportunities.

Skills

Low-power design

Power analysis

RTL impact on power

Python scripting

Tcl scripting

Process node experience

Power targets delivery

Tools

PrimePower

Joules

Job description

Role Overview

As a Senior Physical Design Engineer - Power, you will drive power estimation, optimization, and verification for key blocks and subsystems across Positron's AI accelerator roadmap. Working alongside senior technical leadership, you will execute and help improve our power methodology from architectural modeling through silicon validation, helping us deliver industry-leading performance-per-watt while meeting aggressive power and thermal constraints.

Key Responsibilities

• Power Architecture & Strategy Contribute to the overall chip power strategy, and own power approaches for assigned blocks and subsystems across dynamic power, leakage, clock power, memory power, interconnect power, idle power, and peak power.
• Power Modeling Build and maintain accurate power models across the development lifecycle, from early architectural estimation through RTL and gate-level estimation. Perform vector-based and activity-driven power analysis to validate estimates against real workload behavior.
• Power Optimization Implement and drive power optimization techniques including clock gating, operand isolation, power gating, voltage islands, and multi-Vt optimization. Identify and apply memory, pipeline, toggle-reduction, and data-movement optimizations, including approaches tailored to AI workloads. Give RTL teams actionable feedback to reduce power early in the design cycle.
• Power Integrity Work with the backend team on IR drop, electromigration (EM), power distribution, and power grid analysis. Develop and maintain UPF/CPF specifications for assigned domains, including power domains, isolation, retention, power-on sequencing, and reset sequencing.
• Power Verification Run power-aware simulation and UPF verification for your blocks. Support reset verification, low-power state validation, wakeup validation, and power sequencing verification.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration Partner with Architecture, RTL, Backend, Firmware, Thermal, Packaging, and System Engineering teams to align power decisions across the chip development flow.
• AI-Enabled Engineering Use AI-driven tools to improve power analysis, regression triage, power anomaly detection, activity clustering, and identification of optimization opportunities.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of ASIC design or implementation experience, with a significant focus on power.
• Strong hands-on expertise in low-power design techniques.
• Hands-on experience with UPF/CPF power specification and verification flows.
• Strong proficiency with PrimePower and Joules or equivalent power analysis tools.
• Experience working with advanced process nodes.
• A solid grasp of RTL design and its impact on chip power.
• Track record of contributing to power targets on production silicon.
• Strong Tcl and/or Python scripting skills for analysis and automation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with AI accelerator architectures.
• Familiarity with LPDDR and HBM memory interfaces.
• Working knowledge of PCIe.
• Experience with dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS).
• Exposure to thermal modeling.
• Hands-on experience with silicon power validation.
• Experience mentoring junior engineers or leading power efforts for a subsystem.

Leveling & Scope

While this role is currently posted at a specific level, we are a growth-oriented organization and is open to hiring at a more senior level for the right candidate. This job description is a focused but generalized overview of the role; specific responsibilities and impact expectations will be tailored to the experience and seniority of the final hire.

What Success Looks Like

Within one year, this person will have delivered power estimates for their assigned blocks that reliably predict silicon behavior, driven measurable power reductions through targeted optimizations, delivered clean UPF and power verification for their domains, and contributed meaningfully to a power methodology that scales across future chip generations.

Why Join Us?

Play a key role in power estimation and optimization for a new generation of AI inference accelerators, directly contributing to Positron's performance-per-watt leadership. Work at the frontier of silicon and AI, on chips built specifically for the demands of large-scale LLM inference. Grow your technical scope alongside an experienced, high-caliber implementation team.

Compensation & Benefits

The base salary range for this role is $200,000 - $300,000 .

These figures represent the base salary range only and do not include other elements of our total compensation package, equity, or comprehensive benefits.

At Positron AI, we value the unique expertise each candidate brings. While the range above reflects our typical expectation for the position, we reserve the flexibility to exceed this range for candidates whose specialized skills, significant experience, or unique qualifications fall outside the standard scope of the role. Final offers are determined based on a variety of factors, including internal equity and individual impact.

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