Semiconductor CAD Engineer

Gsme; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading semiconductor company in San Jose seeks a Semiconductor CAD Engineer to design and maintain EDA infrastructure. Responsibilities include administering EDA tools, managing PDKs, and supporting compute farms in RHEL/CentOS environments. Candidates should have a degree in Electrical or Computer Engineering, experience with EDA tools, and strong scripting skills. This role offers attractive opportunities for automation and workflow development, contributing directly to semiconductor design efficiency.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's in Electrical/Computer Engineering or related field.
• Experience working with semiconductor design teams.
• Knowledge of containerization/cloud-based EDA environments.

Responsibilities

• Install, configure, and maintain EDA tools.
• Support Linux-based compute farms.
• Develop automation scripts for design workflows.

Skills

EDA tools expertise

Shell scripting (Bash, Python, Tcl)

PDK installation and validation

Compute farm scheduling

NFS storage management

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering

Tools

EDA tools from Cadence, Synopsys, or Siemens EDA

HPC infrastructure

Job scheduling systems (LSF, Slurm)

Job description

The Semiconductor CAD Engineer is responsible for designing, deploying, and maintaining the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) infrastructure used for IC design. This role focuses on PDK integration, EDA tool installation and configuration, compute farm support, and design environment optimization to enable efficient semiconductor design workflows for analog, digital, and mixed-signal teams.

Key Responsibilities

EDA Tool Administration

• Install, configure, and maintain semiconductor EDA tools such as
• Manage EDA tool upgrades, compatibility validation, and patching
• Troubleshoot EDA tool performance and runtime issues

PDK Integration & Management

• Install and maintain Process Design Kits (PDKs) from semiconductor foundries
• Configure design environments for technologies such as TSMC
• Validate PDK compatibility with EDA tools and simulation environments
• Maintain design rule decks, LVS/DRC flows, and PDK updates
• SoC RF Design Flow Optimization/Automation
• Workflow Customization, Optimization and Automation

Compute Infrastructure Support

• Support Linux-based EDA compute farms (RHEL/CentOS environments)
• Configure and maintain job scheduling systems such as LSF or Slurm
• Optimize compute resources for simulation, synthesis, and verification workloads
• Monitor system performance and resolve bottlenecks
• Manage EDA license servers (FlexLM / RLM)
• Monitor license utilization and optimize allocation
• Configure environment modules and tool setup scripts

Automation & Workflow Development

• Develop automation scripts using Python, Bash, or Tcl
• Automate tool installation, environment setup, and design flows

Storage & Data Management

• Maintain NFS-based design storage environments
• Ensure design data integrity and permissions management
• Support large-scale design data workflows and backups
• Support analog, digital, and verification design teams
• Document tool flows, setup procedures, and best practices

Qualifications

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field
• Experience working with semiconductor design teams
• Exposure to HPC infrastructure and large compute environments
• Knowledge of containerization or cloud-based EDA environments

Required Technical Skills

• Experience with EDA tools from Cadence, Synopsys, or Siemens EDA
• PDK installation and validation experience
• Knowledge of IC design flows (Analog / Digital / Physical design)
• Shell scripting (Bash, Python, Tcl)
• Experience with FlexLM license management
• Familiarity with compute farm schedulers (LSF/Slurm)
• NFS storage management and file permissions

Certifications (Optional)

• Linux certifications such as RHCSA / RHCE