{"id":180988,"url":"https://alion.io/job/etched-physical-design-engineer-flow-methodologies","title":"Physical Design Engineer - Flow & Methodologies","company":{"id":5021,"name":"Etched","domain":"etched.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/etched","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":90,"open_postings":79,"ghost_share":0.076,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":162,"computed_at":"2026-10-16T05:45:00Z"}},"role":"Hardware","role_family":"Hardware","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Jose, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":200000,"max":300000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":300000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Cadence Pegasus","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Siemens Calibre","optional":false},{"name":"Synopsys Fusion Compiler","optional":false},{"name":"Synopsys PrimeTime","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-07-23T03:23:01Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-07-23","last_verified_at":"2026-10-16T19:08:59Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":85,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":["company_stale"],"days_open":85},"description":"About Etched\nEtched is building hardware for frontier intelligence. We co-design chips, racks, software, and manufacturing to deliver best-in-class throughput and latency across both prefill and decode workloads. Our first products are heavily focused on inference. Backed by hundreds of millions from top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Etched is redefining the infrastructure layer for the fastest growing industry in history.\nJob Summary\nEtched is building a new category of AI hardware: frontier inference clusters. As a Physical Design Methodology Engineer, you will architect our PD flow from first principles. You will own the infrastructure that allows our design team to iterate at unprecedented speeds, directly accelerating our time-to-market and enabling PPA gains that aren't possible with off-the-shelf CAD methodologies.\nKey Responsibilities\nArchitect, build, and maintain our automated RTL-to-GDSII flow, from synthesis through place and route to signoff handoff.\n\nAutomate PD flows end to end, including regression running, run management, and release and version control of flow configurations.\n\nBuild and own the CAD infrastructure supporting PD, including tool version qualification and deployment, and efficient use of compute and licenses.\n\nDrive dashboards that show the convergence of projects related to PD, including timing, physical verification, and utilization trends.\n\nOptimize tool flows and work with EDA vendors to evaluate and incorporate the latest features.\n\nDefine reference flows, QoR targets, and delivery checklists for 3rd party physical design services, and audit deliveries against them.\n\nPartner with block and top-level owners to debug flow issues and encode fixes into the methodology rather than one-off patches.\n\nCreate block level and full chip level PG mesh from scratch using design rule documents, design requirements, and EM/IR feedback.\n\nCreate and maintain a DRC-clean floorplanning flow and enable floorplan signoff checks.\n\nDrive PPA tuning to optimize tool settings for best power, performance, and area outcomes.\n\nEstablish and maintain timing correlation from pre-route through post-route and between implementation and signoff tools.\n\nYou may be a good fit if you have\n5-10+ years of previous experience with PD or PD methodology/CAD\n\nExperience building and owning automated RTL-to-GDSII flows used by multiple block owners\n\nExperience creating block level and full chip level PG mesh from scratch, including interpretation of design rule documents and EM/IR analysis\n\nExperience with DRC-clean floorplanning flows and automated checks\n\nExperience with Cadence (Innovus, Genus) or Synopsys ( Fusion Compiler) automated RTL-to-GDSII flows\n\nExperience with PPA tuning and timing correlation across pre-route, post-route, and signoff environments\n\nExperience integrating sign-off tools (PrimeTime, Tempus, Voltus, Pegasus, Calibre) into production flows\n\nExperience with back-end design on advanced process nodes (5nm and below)\n\nExperience with UPF-based low power design methodology and multi-mode multi-corner setup\n\nStrong Tcl and Python skills for flow development and automation\n\nDeeply creative and able to think from first principles\n\nStrong candidates may also have experience with\nFamiliarity with modern ML and LLM model architectures\n\nFamiliarity with AI tools for programming/coding\n\nExperience with compute farm and job scheduler optimization for EDA workloads\n\nStartup experience or comfort working in fast-paced environments\n\nBenefits\nMedical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage\n$500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits\n\nHousing subsidy of $2.5k per month for those living within walking distance of the office\n\nRelocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)\n\nVarious wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more\n\nDaily lunch and dinner in our office\n\nUnlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification\n\nHow we’re different\nEtched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We are the first inference-focused frontier AI system. Our addressable market is the entirety of inference, unlike many of our competitors.\nWe are a fully in-person team in San Jose (Santana Row), and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both and work across disciplines as needed.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4417,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["Processors, MCUs & AI Chips","AI Compute & Inference","AI Chips & Accelerators"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-08-31T18:37:59Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 5","filings_12m":5,"filings_prev_12m":0,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":173500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":5}],"liveness":{"score":74,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.82,"p_room":0.9,"age_days":85,"expected_fill_days":162,"reasons":["conf:0","win:mid"],"computed_at":"2026-10-16T05:45:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":300000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/etched-physical-design-engineer-flow-methodologies","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/etched-physical-design-engineer-flow-methodologies.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-16T23:09:27Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":5007,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-17T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":5021},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=5021"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fetched-physical-design-engineer-flow-methodologies"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fetched-physical-design-engineer-flow-methodologies"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fetched-physical-design-engineer-flow-methodologies"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/etched-physical-design-engineer-flow-methodologies\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fetched-physical-design-engineer-flow-methodologies"}]}