Physical Design Implementation and Signoff Methodology Lead & Architect

Job Details:

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Job Description:About Altera

Altera builds the programmable logic and adaptive computing solutions that power the world's most demanding systems — from data centers and networking infrastructure to automotive, aerospace, and industrial applications. As an independent FPGA leader, we combine decades of silicon expertise with a startup's focus on speed and innovation. Our engineers work at the edge of process technology and design methodology to deliver silicon that customers can trust, on schedule, every time.

The Opportunity

We are looking for a Physical Design Implementation & Signoff Methodology Lead & Architect to own and reinvent the implementation and signoff methodology that underpins every tapeout at Altera. This is a senior individual-contributor role for an engineer who thinks like an architect: someone who doesn't just close implementation and signoff on a single block, but builds the flows, standards, and quality gates — supercharged with an AI/ML-driven mindset — that let every design team close faster, with higher quality and confidence, across every future product. You will be the recognized authority on physical design (PD) implementation and signoff — with place-and-route implementation, electromigration and IR-drop (EMIR) analysis, timing signoff, and power signoff as your core domains — and you will architect flows engineered to scale cleanly as Altera takes on more concurrent designs, without sacrificing turnaround time or quality.

This role sits on Altera's senior individual-contributor (IC) technical ladder (Senior Principal Engineer / Principal Engineer). It is built for deep technical leaders who prefer to lead through expertise, architecture, and influence rather than people management — while still shaping strategy and mentoring the next generation of physical design engineers.

Level distinction: Principal Engineer: owns one signoff domain end-to-end — EMIR, timing, or power — across at least two process nodes, and has deployed that methodology to design teams outside their own. Senior Principal Engineer: owns the implementation and signoff methodology architecture across the product portfolio, and has set methodology strategy across multiple product generations.

What You'll Own / Responsibilities:

• Implementation & signoff methodology strategy — Own the end-to-end physical design implementation and signoff methodology — including place-and-route implementation, electromigration and IR-drop (EMIR) analysis, timing signoff, and power signoff — across Altera's product portfolio.

• Flow architecture — Define and continuously improve PD implementation and signoff flows and standards, ensuring accuracy, full coverage, and efficient turnaround time for every design team that depends on them.