CPU Physical Design Methodology and Optimization Engineer

Santa Clara Until 9/22/2026 10+ years exp First posted July 24, 2026 Last posted July 24, 2026
Job description

Imagine what you could do here. At Apple, new ideas have a way of becoming extraordinary products, services, and customer experiences very quickly. Bring passion and dedication to your job and there's no telling what you could accomplish. Dynamic, hard-working people and inspiring, innovative technologies are the norm here. The people who work here have reinvented entire industries with all Apple Hardware products! The same passion for innovation that goes into our products also applies to our practices strengthening our commitment to leave the world better than we found it. Join us to help deliver groundbreaking Apple products! In this highly visible role as a part of an industry-recognized and innovative CPU design team; you will contribute to solving intriguing and key problems in the physical design (PD) methodology and optimization space. With a steadfast focus on improving Power, Performance and Area (PPA) of our industry leading CPU designs, you’ll have the opportunity to work with most teams in CPU design and influence SOC teams as well. You will also be actively contributing to new and exciting technical areas including applying machine learning techniques in the silicon design space.

Description

• Work with CPU, CAD, and design teams to engineer new flows/algorithms to improve PPA
• Detailed analysis across partitions to understand optimization opportunity
• Develop new PD focused flows to improve CPU performance and efficiency
• Cross-functional collaboration across STA, library, tech and post silicon team to improve optimization during physical design

Minimum Qualifications

Minimum BS and 10+ years of relevant industry experience
Experience in digital circuits, timing/power concepts, and logic design
Experience with TCL or Perl

Preferred Qualifications

Strong fundamentals in high-performance & low-power physical design techniques
Experience in using industry-standard synthesis, PnR, and STA tools
Proficiency in programming and scripting in Python, TCL, or Perl
Understanding of challenges related to latest deep sub-micron technology and ability to write algorithms and code to extract Power Performance & Area during physical design
Ability to work independently and/or lead physical design methodology and optimization techniques across partitions in collaboration with x-functional teams
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

About this role

Summary

Improve CPU design efficiency using physical design, optimization, and machine learning techniques.

Job title

CPU Physical Design Methodology and Optimization Engineer

Experience level

10+ years

Minimum experience

10+ years exp

Industry

technology

Location requirements

On-site in Santa Clara, no remote work allowed.

Salary

Not specified

Management role

No

Skills & keywords

Required skills

digital circuitstiming/power conceptslogic designTCLPerl

Preferred skills

high-performance physical designlow-power techniquesindustry-standard synthesisPnRSTAPythonlibraryalgorithm development

Specializations

physical designoptimizationpowerperformancearea
Locations

Structured locations inferred from the posting.

Santa Clara, CA, USA

On-site City