Senior Software R&D Engineer, VLSI Physical Design

We are seeking a Senior R&D Software Engineer with proven experience in multiple areas of VLSI Physical Design Algorithms (sizing, buffering, CTS, legalization, incremental place and route etc.). Understanding both software and hardware aspects is the key. Creativity and self-drive to explore and perfect fast, high-capacity software is required.

If you like to work across many technical areas and see your successes directly realized in the world's best AI hardware, it does not get any better than this!

Developing software within a leading hardware company means getting to almost exclusively focus on the latest processes and most advanced designs. We're not bogged down by legacy support, niche roles, or convoluted approval processes. Our developers enjoy unusually high intellectual freedom and the ability to explore broad roles.

- Invent new optimization engines that fuse traditionally independent engines (e.g., co-optimization of legalization and sizing) with the objective of increasing chip frequency while minimizing power consumption across a suite of internal optimization tools. These tools already outperform the industry's alternatives in high capacity timing closure and will advance even further with your contributions.

- Improve algorithms (in C++) for gate-level sizing, buffering, useful clock skew, cell legalization, power minimization, ECO routing, and incremental parasitic extraction.

- As with any software engineering team, we do write a lot of code, but this is broader than a typical CAD or EDA role. Instead, we as a team own the whole process from discovery and invention of new optimization opportunities, to developing solutions and working directly inside design teams to facilitate deployment.

- BS, MS, PhD or equivalent experience in Electrical Engineering or Computer Science

- Strong understanding of VLSI timing optimization and related concepts, including cell libraries, interconnect models, crosstalk, glitches, IR drop, timing constraints, corners, congestion, etc.

- Familiarity with design implementation tools such as ICC2, Innovus, PrimeTime, Tempus, and StarRC and typical design flows written in Perl, Tcl, and Python

- C++14 or newer experience, such as lambdas and concurrency

- Detailed understanding of how multiple Physical Design steps interact and how they can potentially be fused together to form hybrid engines that result in better PPA

- Experience in high performance software design including multithreading, distributed computing, efficient memory and I/O use, etc.

- Highly driven to craft outstanding software towards improving PPA with a dedication to continuous improvement

- Experience with reinforcement learning, GNNs (Graph Neural Networks), and other relevant machine learning frameworks, especially as applied to physical design

NVIDIA is widely considered to be one of the technology world's most desirable employers, and due to outstanding growth, our teams are rapidly growing. Are you passionate about becoming a part of a best-in-class team driving the latest in GPU and AI technology? If so, we want to hear from you!

Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions. The base salary range is 168,000 USD - 264,500 USD for Level 4, and 196,000 USD - 310,500 USD for Level 5.

Applications for this job will be accepted at least until July 26, 2026.