Senior/Principal Physical Design Engineer

Responsibilities

• Drive the physical implementation of ASIC/SoC designs, including floorplanning, placement, clock tree synthesis (CTS), routing, and sign-off
• Work on synthesis, timing analysis (STA), and optimisation to achieve best PPA metrics
• Perform power planning and analysis, addressing IR drop, electromigration, and low-power design techniques
• Ensure design rule check (DRC), layout vs. schematic (LVS), and other physical verification compliance
• Collaborate with DFT engineers to integrate design-for-test (DFT) structures
• Develop flows in EDA tools such as Cadence Innovus, Synopsys Fusion Compiler, and Mentor Graphics Calibre
• Interface with foundries and process engineers to ensure manufacturability and yield optimisation
• Work with RTL and architecture teams to drive design feasibility and physical-aware RTL design
• Utilize advanced AI tools and models to improve productivity and design quality

Requirements

• Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field
• 8+ years of experience in physical design for advanced technology nodes (7nm, 5nm, or below)
• Strong proficiency in EDA tools for place & route, STA, and sign-off
• Solid understanding of CMOS technology, semiconductor physics, and process limitations
• Experience with low-power design methodologies and multi-power domain architectures
• Expertise in timing closure, signal integrity, IR drop analysis, and formal verification
• Proficiency in scripting languages like TCL, Perl, or Python

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in high-performance computing (HPC), AI accelerators, or networking chips
• Experience or strong interest in leveraging advanced AI tools and models within engineering workflows

About the Company

Fractile is building the silicon, systems, and software to break through the memory wall, the fundamental hardware constraint standing between today's AI and what comes next. Founded in 2022, we are a fast-growing team of 100+ people across London and Bristol.