CPU Physical Design Engineer

Intel Corporation•Austin, TX

9h•$105,650 - $200,340•Onsite

About The Position

Join Intel’s CPU Design team and help develop the next generation of high-performance processors. As a CPU Physical Design Engineer, you will contribute to the physical implementation and optimization of complex CPU designs, helping achieve ambitious goals for performance, power, area, timing, and manufacturability. You will work alongside engineers across architecture, logic design, circuit design, design automation, and validation to turn innovative CPU concepts into manufacturable silicon. Your work will contribute directly to technologies enabling the next generation of client, data center, and AI computing. This is an opportunity to deepen your physical design expertise, work with advanced semiconductor technologies, and solve challenging engineering problems alongside experienced technical teams. Intel’s CPU Design team within the Silicon and Platform Engineering Group (SPE) develops advanced processor technologies that power the future of computing. Our engineers bring together expertise across architecture, logic, circuit, physical design, and design automation to build high-performance CPUs using advanced process technologies and innovative design methodologies. We value technical curiosity, collaboration, continuous learning, and people who are motivated to find better ways to solve complex problems.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Electrical/ Computer Engineering, or a related field with 3+ years of relevant experience. Or a Master's degree in the same field with 1+ years of educational or work experience.
Physical design implementation using industry-standard EDA tools such as Synopsys Fusion Compiler, Cadence Genus/Innovus, or equivalent.
Backend physical design workflows, including experience in areas such as floorplanning, place and route, clock tree synthesis, static timing analysis, and layout verification.
Scripting with TCL, Perl, Python, or similar languages for design automation, analysis, or design exploration.
Experience with RTL-to-GDS physical design flows.

Nice To Haves

A PhD in in the same field with 6+ months of educational or work experience.
CPU, SoC, or other complex high-performance physical design.
Tape-out experience using advanced semiconductor process technologies.
Low-power design techniques, multiple power domains, UPF, or power analysis methods.
Power, performance, area, and timing optimization.
RTL-to-GDS design-flow automation.
AI/ML-based approaches to place-and-route or physical design optimization.
Working across multiple EDA tools or vendor platforms.
Collaborating with EDA vendors to evaluate or improve design tools and methodologies.
Thermal or power-reduction techniques.

Responsibilities

Implement CPU physical designs from RTL through a design database ready for manufacturing.
Work across the physical design flow, including floorplanning, synthesis, place and route, clock tree synthesis, static timing analysis, power and clock distribution, and design optimization.
Perform verification and signoff activities such as formal equivalence, reliability verification, layout verification, and structural design checks.
Analyze design results and identify opportunities to improve power, performance, area, timing, and overall design quality.
Collaborate with architecture, logic, circuit, and design automation engineers to solve complex CPU design challenges.
Develop and improve physical design methodologies, flows, and automation.
Work with internal engineering teams and EDA partners to evaluate and improve design tools and capabilities.
Apply lessons learned from current designs to help improve future CPU products and methodologies.