Principal Physical Design Engineer

Microsoft•Raleigh, NC

7d•$165,600 - $331,200

About The Position

Microsoft Silicon, Cloud Hardware, and Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) powers Microsoft’s expanding cloud infrastructure and supports the Intelligent Cloud mission. Within SCHIE, the Compute Silicon & Manufacturing Engineering organization designs, develops, manufactures, and packages Microsoft computer chips, including Azure Cobalt. The team works to deliver cloud hardware infrastructure on time, at high volume and quality, and at low cost, while improving planning, quality, delivery, scale, and sustainability. The Principal Physical Design Engineer will own and execute physical design implementation for silicon designs, from synthesis through place-and-route and RTL-to-GDS. The role leads clock construction and CTS, drives methodology improvements, and completes signoff activities. The engineer works across design, CAD, architecture, power and performance, technology, and other internal and external teams to deliver solutions and influence tools, flows, and methodologies. The position calls for technical leadership, hands-on physical design expertise, effective communication, and collaboration aligned with Microsoft’s values.

Requirements

Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field and at least 7 years of technical engineering experience; or master’s degree in one of these fields and at least 10 years of experience; or bachelor’s degree in one of these fields and at least 12 years of experience; or equivalent experience.
Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements, including the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire or transfer and every two years thereafter.
As a condition of employment, ability to provide proof of citizenship, U.S. residency, or other protected status for export-control eligibility assessment; citizenship will be verified with a valid passport, with other documents accepted where applicable for lawful permanent residents, refugees, and asylees.

Nice To Haves

Track record implementing designs through synthesis, floorplanning, place-and-route, extraction, timing, and physical verification.
20+ years of physical design experience.
Production silicon tape-out experience in advanced foundry process nodes.
Experience with low-power design methodology for SoCs.
Understanding of SoC or subsystem design trade-offs across power, performance, and area (PPA).
Familiarity with clock construction strategies for high-speed designs.
Technical expertise across physical design, from synthesis and place-and-route of partitions through timing signoff, physical verification, EMIR signoff, formal equivalence, and low-power verification.
Experience owning complete physical design execution of medium-to-large SoC blocks.
Ability to provide hands-on technical ownership as an individual contributor and collaborate across teams.
Experience partnering with physical design flow/CAD and methodology teams to identify and fix PD TFM issues.
Problem-solving and data analysis skills.
Ability to communicate effectively with cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

Lead and execute end-to-end physical design flows from synthesis through place-and-route for multiple designs, completing signoff stages including timing, physical verification, EMIR, formal equivalence, and low-power verification.
Own clock construction and clock tree synthesis (CTS).
Drive methodology exploration to optimize SoC blocks for clock construction and related methodologies.
Coordinate with CAD, RTL/design, DFT, architecture, power and performance, technology, and other internal and external partners.
Own RTL-to-GDS implementation in the physical design domain.
Influence design tools, flows, and methodologies for construction, signoff, and optimization using a data-driven approach.
Collaborate across teams to deliver solutions aligned with a One Microsoft mindset.
Demonstrate leadership and technical expertise across physical design domains.
Communicate project status and planning clearly.
Demonstrate Microsoft core values, including customer focus, adaptability, collaboration, growth mindset, drive for results, influence for impact, judgment, and diversity and inclusion.