Hardware Engineer, Physical Design

The role

You will own the end-to-end silicon realization path from synthesis and physical floorplanning through timing signoff and GDSII tapeout. You will drive the full backend implementation flow to achieve power, performance, and area targets.

What you will do

• Lead the full netlist-to-GDSII physical design flow, including floorplanning, power grid design, placement, clock tree synthesis (CTS), and place-and-route (P&R).
• Own static timing analysis (STA), timing constraints creation/validation, and signoff timing closure across all operating corners and modes.
• Drive physical optimization for power, performance, and area (PPA), as well as power integrity (IR/EM) and crosstalk analysis.
• Execute full chip/block physical signoff checks, including DRC, LVS, ERC, and antenna fixes.
• Collaborate with RTL, architecture, and DFT teams to influence early floorplanning, macro placement, pin assignments, and physical feasibility.
• Create and execute tapeout checklists, manage final stream-out processes, and support post-silicon physical debugging and bring-up.

Required qualifications

• At least 3+ successful tapeouts from netlist to signoff
• Deep hands-on experience with industry-standard physical design tools (e.g., Innovus, IC Compiler II, Tempus, PrimeTime, Pegasus, Calibre) across floorplanning, P&R, CTS, and signoff timing closure
• Strong problem-solving skills in analyzing and resolving STA timing bottlenecks, IR/EM drop issues, crosstalk, and complex DRC/LVS signoff violations
• Ability to collaborate effectively with RTL, architecture, and DFT teams

Nice to have

• Experience at an AI or high-performance compute (HPC) chip startup where design, verification, and PD work in tight iteration cycles
• Experience with custom memory/macro floorplanning, hierarchical top-level implementation, or advanced packaging (e.g., chiplets, 2.5D/3D integration)
• Hands-on experience developing or maintaining automated TCL/Python scripting frameworks for physical design flows

About the company

Normal is an applied AI company solving the hardest problems in AI and silicon. They build foundational hardware and software for the semiconductor industry, critical AI infrastructure, and the broader systems that power our world.