Principal Engineer, Automated Derivatives

Renesas Electronics • Austin, TX

13h • Hybrid

About The Position

In this multi-disciplinary role, you will lead the end-to-end delivery of derivative SoCs, focusing on the intersection of RTL design, functional verification, and physical implementation. You will not just execute flows; you will build an AI-augmented "Silicon Factory" that uses machine learning to bridge the gap between architectural intent and GDSII. Your goal is to achieve ultra-fast turnaround times by using AI to predict physical outcomes during RTL coding and to automate the verification of design variants. Renesas is an embedded semiconductor solution provider driven by its Purpose 'To Make Our Lives Easier.' As the industry’s leading expert in embedded processing with unmatched quality and system-level know-how, we have evolved to provide scalable and comprehensive semiconductor solutions for automotive, industrial, infrastructure, and IoT industries based on the broadest product portfolio, including High Performance Computing, Embedded Processing, Analog & Connectivity, and Power. With a diverse team of over 22,000 professionals in more than 30 countries, we continue to expand our boundaries to offer enhanced user experiences through digitalization and usher into a new era of innovation. We design and develop sustainable, power-efficient solutions today that help people and communities thrive tomorrow, 'To Make Our Lives Easier.' At Renesas, you can launch and advance your career in technical and business roles across four Product Groups and various corporate functions, make a real impact by developing innovative products and solutions, and maximize your performance and wellbeing in a flexible and inclusive work environment.

Requirements

• Minimum of a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or Computer Engineering.
• 12–15 years of professional experience in the semiconductor industry, with a focus on Full-Stack Hardware Mastery, Physical Design Foundation, ML/AI Integration, Data-Driven Flow Dev, and Version Control & CI/CD.
• Proficiency in SystemVerilog for RTL design and UVM for functional verification.
• Solid understanding of Synthesis, P&R, and STA (Static Timing Analysis) to ensure RTL is physically realisable.
• Expert Python skills to build and deploy models that interface with both simulation tools (VCS, Xcelium) and implementation tools (Innovus, ICC2).
• Experience using Tcl/Python to extract "features" from simulation logs and implementation reports to train predictive models.
• Mastery of Git and CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins/GitLab) to manage the high-velocity deployment of design derivatives.

Responsibilities

• Use ML-based predictors to evaluate RTL code for timing and congestion bottlenecks before synthesis, reducing the number of "RTL-to-GDS" iterations.
• Develop scripts and Generative AI prompts to automate the creation of RTL wrappers, memory maps, and bus interconnects for design variants.
• Employ AI to identify redundant logic or clock-gating opportunities to hit aggressive power targets in derivative designs.
• Build AI-driven verification environments that automatically adjust constraints and coverage goals when a design derivative (e.g., changed cache size or port count) is instantiated.
• Use ML to prioritize test cases that are most likely to fail based on historical RTL changes, slashing simulation time and compute costs.
• Deploy pattern-recognition models to identify "bug-prone" modules in the RTL based on complexity metrics and previous tape-out data.
• Ensure a "zero-friction" path from RTL to Physical Design by using AI to automatically generate floorplan constraints and timing assertions from the design spec.
• Drive the physical implementation of derivatives, using AI to "reuse" placement and routing solutions from parent designs to achieve 10x faster convergence.

Benefits

• Opportunities to launch and advance your career in technical and business roles across four Product Groups and various corporate functions.
• Opportunities to explore hardware and software capabilities and try new things.
• Opportunity to make a real impact by developing innovative products and solutions to meet global customers' evolving needs and help make people’s lives easier, safe and secure.
• Flexible and inclusive work environment.
• People-first culture and global support system, including the remote work option and Employee Resource Groups.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees