Principal CAD Engineer

The Role 

We are looking for an experienced CAD Engineer, Principal to join a small but growing Processor Design group, advancing the art of high-performance implementation and physical design.

Ideal candidates will develop and maintain physical design flows for high performance designs.

What You’ll Do 

• Develop and support innovative physical design methodology and custom CAD
• Work closely with implementation and physical design (PD) team
• Debugging flow issues
• Running multiple test designs through flow on latest technologies to determine impact on technology changes to area, power and timing
• Automating new flow practices for general use in the design community

What You’ll Bring 

• Minimum of 8 to 10 years relevant work experience
• Experience in physical design CAD flow including synthesis, place & route, and floor planning
• Preferred - power distribution, static timing analysis and physical design verification
• Experience in hierarchical P&R and flow development
• Experience with all aspects of PD including floorplanning, power-distribution, pad ring construction, placement, CTS, and routing
• Experience with low power design and implementation techniques using UPF/CPF
• Understand hierarchical P&R issues including top-level floorplanning, pin-assignment, clock-distribution, critical-signal handling, hierarchical abstractions (black-box, ILM, etc.)
• Strong TCL/Perl/Makefile scripting knowledge
• Experience in developing complex algorithms, managing, and regressing P&R flows
• Familiar with chip-finishing issues (metal-fill, spare-cells, DFM rules, boundary-cells, etc.) for the latest generations of process technologies
• Experience with tool sets including as Cadence Genus, Cadence Innovus, Mentor Calibre
• Excellent communication and problem-solving skills

Education
BS/MS Electrical Engineering  

Pay and Benefits 

Ampere offers a competitive total rewards package that includes base pay, bonus, stock, and comprehensive benefits. The full base pay range for this role is between $143,000 and $238,000. We also offer an annual bonus program tied to internal company goals and annual meritocratic stock awards that enable our employees to participate in the success of the company. Our benefits include health, wellness, and financial programs that support employees through every stage of life, with full benefits eligibility at 20 hours per week. Beyond compensation and benefits, our passionate teams thrive in an inclusive culture that empowers our employees to do more and grow more - all in service of inventing industry leading cloud-native designs that contribute to a more sustainable future. We look forward to sharing more about our career opportunities through interviews.

Perks in Santa Clara - Headquarters 

• Office has panoramic views of Silicon Valley
• Competitive compensation and benefits
• Garage parking, including charging stations and bike parking
• Gym and café on campus
• Walking distance to restaurants, shops, Light rail, and train stations
• Jogging and pedestrian trails
• Healthy snacks, espresso, and drinks 
• Standing desks/Ergo friendly desk set-up
• Game room, including ping-pong 
• Unlimited Flextime and 10+ paid holidays

Our Company   

Ampere is designing the future of hyperscale cloud and edge computing with the world’s first cloud native processor. Built for the cloud with a modern 64-bit Arm server-based architecture, Ampere gives customers the freedom to accelerate the delivery of all cloud computing applications. With industry-leading cloud performance, power efficiency and scalability, Ampere processors are tailored for the continued growth of cloud and edge computing. 

Our Story   

Like the scientist behind its name, Ampere employees are innovators. We understand the needs of cloud computing and different software requirements. We are inventing what comes next and looking at everything from the structure of memory and how efficient the system is, to considerations on speed, cost of electricity and ability to cool. Power, size, weight and cost are driving the technology requirements and the innovation to come. 

Our world class team of engineers, with depth and expertise in the cloud and semiconductor industries, is not only focused on the development of new semiconductor designs but also building out the first software ecosystem for Arm®-based server processors. Through the Ampere approach to the cloud and edge, we give our customers the freedom to challenge the status quo and accelerate next-generation data centers for the most memory-intensive applica