SoC Physical Design Engineer, Top Level

Apple Inc.; Beaverton (OR); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Apple Inc. in Beaverton, Oregon seeks an experienced chip design professional to drive full-flow ASIC/SoC implementation from netlist to tapeout. You will partner with FE and physical design teams to set goals, guidelines, and milestones for place and route, timing, and IP integration.

Responsibilities include floorplanning, power distribution, global timing, and multi‑domain convergence for large designs (>20M gates) at >1GHz, using sub‑45nm tech. BS plus 10+ years required.

Qualifications

• BS degree in a relevant field and 10+ years of industry experience.
• Strong expertise in ASIC/SoC physical design, floorplanning, and IP integration.
• Experience with multi-VA and timing closure across >20M gates.
• Knowledge of CAD tools and verification flows for physical design.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with FE and physical design teams to drive architecture and physical implementation.
• Lead place and route activities, set milestones, and manage dependencies.
• Resolve design and flow issues in physical design and drive IP requirements.
• Ensure timing, power, and thermal convergence for large SoC designs.

Skills

ASIC/SoC design

Physical design

Floorplanning

P&R (Place & Route)

Timing analysis

Power integrity

IP integration

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Floorplanning tools

P&R tools

CAD tools

Job description

Imagine what you could do here! At Apple, new ideas have a way of becoming extraordinary products, services, and customer experiences very quickly. Bring passion and dedication to your job and there's no telling what you could accomplish. Dynamic, hardworking people and inspiring, innovative technologies are the norm here. The people who work here have reinvented entire industries with all Apple Hardware products. The same passion for innovation that goes into our products also applies to our practices strengthening our commitment to leave the world better than we found it. Join us to help deliver the next groundbreaking Apple product!In this highly visible role, you will be responsible for implementing complete chip design from netlist to tapeout.

Description

• Work with the FE team to understand chip architecture and drive physical aspects early in the design cycle.
• Work with the physical design team to drive methodologies and “best known methods” to streamline physical design work, come up with guidelines and checklists, drive execution, and track progress.
• Be a focal point for place and route, drive the work among place and route engineers, set goals and milestones, plan short and long-term work, understand dependencies between different domains like top, STA, block place and route.
• Resolve design and flow issues related to physical design, identify potential solutions, and drive execution.

Minimum Qualifications

• Minimum BS and 10+ years of relevant industry experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Needs to be familiar with aspects of ASIC integration including floorplanning, clock and power distribution, global signal planning, I/O planning, and hard IP integration.
• Experience with typical SoC issues such as multiple voltage and clock domains, ESD strategies, mixed signal block integration, and package interactions.
• Familiar with a hierarchical design approach, top-down design, budgeting, timing and physical convergence.
• Experience integrating IP from both internal and external vendors and be able to specify and drive IP requirements in the physical domain is required.
• Experience with large SoC designs (>20M gates) with frequencies in excess of 1GHz using innovative sub 45nm technologies.
• A detailed understanding of database management issues is required.
• From a CAD tool perspective, experience with floorplanning tools, P&R flows, global timing verification and physical design verification flows is required.
• Familiar with various process-related design issues including Design for Yield and Manufacturability, multi Vt strategies and thermal Mgt.

Apple is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. We seek to promote equal opportunity for all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, Veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. Learn more about your EEO rights as an applicant

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Apple accepts applications to this posting on an ongoing basis.