Scope

The SPOT Physical Design Lead Engineer will plan and lead physical design activities for Ambiq's next-generation technology development. This will include both methodology development and day-to-day management of tape-outs driven by Ambiq's Advanced Development team. They will work closely with other members of the Advanced Development team and the broader engineering community at Ambiq to develop new ultra-low power methodologies, test them out, and then deploy them in sub-threshold and near-threshold test chips at 12nm and beyond. The lead engineer will also work closely with the Engineering team to transition new methodologies to support production chip development.

This is a 'hands on' position that requires significant independent work but will also require management of a team of internal and contract resources and extensive cross-team collaboration. The successful candidate will be comfortable working both independently as well as in a leadership position collaborating with a variety of senior engineers. They will also be comfortable with the uncertainty that comes with new technology development and will have a strong sense of independent drive.

Specific Responsibilities

• Investigate, plan, and test new physical design methodologies to enable sub-threshold and near-threshold circuits and other related low power techniques (e.g., adaptive body biasing, customized standard cells, specialized memory structures, etc.).
• Validate and refine new techniques as part of a team that is building complex test chips in advanced nodes (e.g., 12nm and beyond).
• Work with product development teams (Engineering team and Architecture and Product Planning team) to rapidly deploy newly developed techniques in products.
• Plan and lead physical design activities for test chips owned by the Advanced Development team. As part of this effort, lead a small group of internal and contract resources.
• Maintain a relationship with and collaborate with 3rd party CAD tool vendors during the development of new methodologies.

Education and Experience:

• 10 years of experience serving as technical lead or manager for physical design in advanced SoCs.
• A master's degree in electrical engineering or a related field is required.
• Experience serving as physical design lead in 16nm and beyond is required.
• Experience building complex SoCs with a mix of processors, memories, and high-speed interfaces is required.
• Experience running advanced timing flows (e.g., SOCV) and power-driven PD flows (e.g., multi-domain designs with a UPF/CPF flow) is required.
• Experience developing new timing flows, custom standard cells, and power-driven PD flows is highly desirable.
• Experience managing a small group of engineers is highly desirable.
• Experience developing new technologies and transitioning those technologies to production is highly desirable.

Key Personal and Professional Attributes

Ambiq is a company that values continued technology innovation, a fanatical attention to customer needs, collaborative decision making, and, above all, enthusiasm for energy efficiency. The incoming candidate should embrace these same values. The successful candidate must be self-motivated, extremely creative, and should be comfortable learning exciting new technologies. This is an opportunity for growth and an opportunity to work on complex, interesting, and challenging projects.