Principal CAD Engineer — PPA-Driven High-Performance AI CPU

Ampere; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 195,000 - 292,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401K retirement plan

Unlimited flextime

Job summary

Ampere, a leading semiconductor design company, is seeking an experienced Principal CAD Engineer to join a growing Processor Design group. You will develop and maintain physical design flows, focusing on high-performance, energy-efficient AI compute.

You will collaborate with implementation and physical design teams to optimize PPA across projects, analyze the impact of technology changes, and drive scalable automation for advanced nodes.

Qualifications

• Proven experience driving PPA optimization across physical design flows.
• Experience delivering block or chip-level designs with aggressive PPA targets.
• Experience in low power design using UPF/CPF.
• Proficient in scripting with CAD infrastructures and automation for PPA regression.
• Excellent communication and debugging skills.

Responsibilities

• Drive development and continuous improvement of synthesis and physical design methodology with a focus on maximizing PPA.
• Collaborate closely with implementation and physical design teams to optimize PPA metrics across multiple projects.
• Analyze the impact of technology and design changes on PPA at block and full chip level.
• Identify PPA bottlenecks and develop solutions balancing timing, area, power and routability.
• Debug flow issues and implement robust automation for scalable deployment across various advanced technologies and design teams.

Skills

PPA optimization

Physical design experience

UPF/CPF for low power

Hierarchical P&R

Scripting: Tcl/Perl/Python

Automation frameworks

Chip finishing / sign-off

EDA tools familiarity

Strong debugging & analytical skills

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical or Computer Engineering

Tools

Cadence Genus

Cadence Innovus

Mentor Calibre

Job description

Ampere, a leading semiconductor design company, is seeking an experienced Principal CAD Engineer to join a growing Processor Design group. You will develop and maintain physical design flows, focusing on high-performance, energy-efficient AI compute.

You will collaborate with implementation and physical design teams to optimize PPA across projects, analyze the impact of technology changes, and drive scalable automation for advanced nodes.