Director of Physical Design
About The Position
Ambiq is seeking an accomplished Director of Physical Design to lead and scale its physical implementation organization for next-generation, ultra-low-power microcontroller (MCU) products. This strategic leadership role will drive the physical design roadmap, deliver strong power, performance, and area (PPA), and ensure robust silicon for high-volume embedded applications. The Director will guide a multidisciplinary team across design methodology, physical implementation, and sign-off, working closely with architecture, RTL design, analog/mixed-signal, verification, and product engineering teams to bring MCU products to market. The role is on-site five days a week in Northwest Austin. Ambiq develops low-power semiconductor solutions using proprietary sub- and near-threshold technology. Its chips support wearables, medical devices, IoT products, and AI-powered edge applications. The company’s teams operate across Austin, Hsinchu, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Singapore.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or a related field.
- 15 or more years of experience in physical design for complex SoCs.
- At least 5 years of experience in leadership roles.
- Proven track record of delivering multiple chips to production.
- Deep expertise in low-power design techniques, including UPF, clock gating, multi-Vt, power gating, DVFS, and retention.
- Expertise with physical design tools from Synopsys, Cadence, and Mentor.
- Experience with advanced process nodes from 40nm through 22nm and 12nm and below.
- Strong understanding of MCU architectures and embedded-system constraints.
- Excellent communication, leadership, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
- Currently authorized to work in the United States for any employer.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with mixed-signal SoCs and analog IP integration.
- Background in high-volume consumer or industrial MCU products.
- Familiarity with security-focused or safety-certified MCU designs, such as ISO 26262.
- Experience building and scaling distributed engineering teams.
Responsibilities
- Define and execute the physical design strategy for low-power MCU product lines.
- Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing global physical design team.
- Establish methodologies for low-power, high-reliability physical implementation.
- Improve design flows, automation, and sign-off quality, including through the use of AI tools.
- Oversee full-chip and block-level physical design, including floorplanning, power planning, low-power architecture implementation, clock tree synthesis, place and route, timing closure, physical verification, EM/IR and reliability sign-off, and power analysis.
- Ensure optimal PPA trade-offs for ultra-low-power MCU architectures.
- Partner with architecture and RTL teams to influence early design decisions.
- Work with analog/mixed-signal teams to integrate mixed-signal IP into SoCs.
- Collaborate with product engineering and operations to ensure manufacturability and yield.
- Interface with foundries regarding technology capabilities, PDK updates, and design rules.
- Own physical design schedules, resource planning, and risk management.
- Ensure first-silicon success through rigorous sign-off and validation processes.
- Drive tape-out readiness and support post-silicon debug.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
