Analog Design, Sr Staff Engineer 18395
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- Not listed
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Staff
- Employment
- Not specified
- Experience
- 2+ years
- Category
- Design
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- PhD with 2+ years of hands-on SerDes or high-speed analog design experience, or BTech/MTech with 5 to 10 years in the same domain
- Silicon-proven experience designing and bringing up analog or mixed-signal blocks in production chips, you have seen your circuits work in real silicon
- Deep expertise in at least several of these building blocks: analog front-end transceivers, voltage/current-mode drivers, PLLs, DLLs, VCOs, CDR circuits, bandgaps, regulators, CTLE, FFE, DFE, impedanc
- Strong proficiency with SPICE simulation tools and sub-micron CMOS design methodologies, you know how to set up corners, sweep parameters, and interpret results that matter
- Experience optimizing layout for performance, including parasitic extraction, device matching, stress effects, and design-for-reliability considerations like electromigration, IR drop, and aging
- Familiarity with scripting languages such as TCL or Perl for automation and simulation flow setup is a strong plus
- Working knowledge of high-speed serial standards like PAM4, PCIe 6.0, PCIe 7.0, Ethernet, USB, SATA, HDMI, or MIPI is highly valued
- You can take a specification document and translate it into a circuit architecture without waiting for someone to hand you a reference design
- You catch layout issues early, you review floorplans and flag where a long metal run or poor device placement will degrade performance before it becomes a post-layout surprise
- You are comfortable presenting technical data to peers and customers, you can walk someone through a Bode plot or an eye diagram and explain what it means for margin and yield
- You push back when a requirement does not make sense or when a verification plan has gaps, you care about getting it right more than checking a box
- You work well across teams, coordinating with digital designers on control loops, with layout on physical implementation, and with characterization engineers on test plans
- You stay current on process technology and circuit techniques, not because it is trendy but because it helps you design better blocks
Full description
We AreSynopsys is the leader in engineering solutions from silicon to systems, enabling customers to rapidly innovate AI-powered products. We deliver industry-leading silicon design, IP, simulation and analysis solutions, and design services. We partner closely with our customers across a wide range of industries to maximize their R&D capability and productivity, powering innovation today that ignites the ingenuity of tomorrow.
You Are
You have spent years in the trenches of analog design, working on circuits that move data at speeds most people cannot fathom. SerDes is not just a buzzword to you, it is the domain where you have built voltage-mode drivers, tuned PLLs until they locked cleanly, and debugged equalization schemes that looked perfect in simulation but needed three more iterations in layout. You know that a well-designed CDR is the difference between a link that works and one that fails margin at the customer site.
You do not wait for a reference design to be handed to you. When you see a spec, you already start sketching topologies and thinking through tradeoffs between power, area, and performance. Layout is not something that happens after you finish the schematic, it is part of your design process from day one. A long metal run or poor device placement catches your eye in a floorplan review because you know exactly how it will show up in post-layout simulation.
At Synopsys, you will work on SerDes IP that ships in AI accelerators, data center switches, automotive SoCs, and consumer electronics. The circuits you design will be measured in gigabits per second, and the decisions you make will matter in millions of devices.
What You'll Be Doing
- Design and optimize analog front-end building blocks for SerDes IP, including voltage and current-mode drivers, equalizers (CTLE, FFE, DFE), CDR circuits, PLLs, DLLs, VCOs, phase interpolators, bandgaps, and regulators
- Run SPICE simulations across PVT corners and create verification test benches that validate performance against PCIe 6.0, PCIe 7.0, PAM4, Ethernet, USB, HDMI, or other high-speed protocol specifications
- Collaborate closely with layout engineers to minimize parasitic resistance and capacitance, reduce mismatch, and account for proximity effects in sub-micron CMOS processes
- Work with digital RTL engineers to verify calibration loops, adaptation algorithms, and control logic that tune your analog circuits in real time
- Present simulation results, design tradeoffs, and performance data in peer reviews and customer-facing technical discussions
- Document circuit architecture, design features, verification strategies, and test plans for integration into larger SerDes products
- Own the full lifecycle of your blocks from spec to silicon, including post-layout verification, characterization support, and design-for-reliability checks for electromigration, IR drop, aging, and ESD