SoC Physical Design Engineer, Top Level

San Jose Until 9/22/2026 3+ 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, hardworking 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 the next groundbreaking Apple product! In this highly visible role, you will be responsible for implementing complete chip design from netlist to tapeout.

Description

• Work with the FE team to understand chip architecture and drive physical aspects early in the design cycle.
• Work with the physical design team to drive methodologies and “best known methods” to streamline physical design work, come up with guidelines and checklists, drive execution, and track progress.
• Be a focal point for place and route, drive the work among place and route engineers, set goals and milestones, plan short and long-term work, understand dependencies between different domains like top, STA, block place and route.
• Resolve design and flow issues related to physical design, identify potential solutions, and drive execution.

Minimum Qualifications

Minimum BS with 3+ years experience.

Preferred Qualifications

Knowledgeable in partition or top level P&R implementation, including floorplanning, clock and power distribution, timing closure, physical and electrical verification.
Experience with Top Level a plus, but not required.
Strong knowledge of physical design construction and analysis flows and methodology.
Shown ability to adhere to stringent schedule and die size requirements.
Strong communication skills.
Experienced with industry standard tools, understanding their capabilities and underlying algorithms.
Experience with large SOC designs (>20M gates) with frequencies in excess of 1GHZ.

About this role

Summary

Implement chip design from netlist to tapeout, lead physical design processes.

Job title

SoC Physical Design Engineer, Top Level

Experience level

3+ years

Minimum experience

3+ years exp

Industry

technology

Location requirements

On-site in San Jose, no remote work allowed

Salary

Not specified

Management role

No

Skills & keywords

Required skills

chip architecturephysical designplace and routeindustry standard toolslarge SOC designs

Preferred skills

partition implementationtop level P&Rfloorplanningclock and power distributiontiming closure

Specializations

physical designplace and routefloorplanningtiming closureverification
Locations

Structured locations inferred from the posting.

San Jose, CA, USA

On-site City