PD - Sr Staff - Physical Verification Lead | Signoff & DRC

Job Description

Job Description

ABOUT THE ROLE

As a Sr Staff / Principal Physical Verification Engineer , you will be the technical owner of all signoff physical verification activities across advanced process nodes. You will lead DRC, LVS, and DFM sign-off at chip top level, drive hierarchical verification strategies, and own bump planning and package-level DRC across Intel, TSMC, Samsung, and GlobalFoundries technologies spanning 28nm through 2nm. You will be a partner with physical design, package engineering, and foundry teams to ensure first-pass tape out success on chiplet-based products.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Signoff Physical Verification — Top Level

• Own end-to-end physical verification signoff strategy from block level through chip top, ensuring all DRC, LVS, ERC, and antenna violations are cleanly resolved before tapeout.
• Define and execute hierarchical DRC methodology across multiple abstraction levels (block, partition, top), leveraging Calibre or IC Validator in hierarchical and distributed modes.
• Drive full-chip DRC convergence across advanced nodes including 28nm, 22nm, 14nm, 7nm, 5nm, 3nm, and 2nm at Intel, TSMC, Samsung, and GlobalFoundries.
• Develop waiver management processes with foundry sign-off teams; distinguish hard violations from soft DFM advisories and document justifications for each waiver class.
• Collaborate with physical design teams on real-time DRC closure, guiding routing rules, spacing constraints, and metal fill strategies to minimize violations upstream.
• Lead bump planning for flip-chip and 2.5D/3D chiplet assemblies — define bump array configuration, pitch, UBM sizing, and RDL routing to satisfy both electrical and mechanical requirements.
• Execute top-level bump DRC checks including bump pitch, clearance, RDL spacing, keep-out zones, and passivation opening rules per foundry and OSAT PDK requirements.
• Validate bump-to-bump, bump-to-signal, and bump-to-power domain spacing across multiple power domains and IO ring configurations.
• Collaborate with package and substrate teams on co-design constraints to align die-side bump map with package-side ball grid array (BGA) and interposer routing.
• Ensure compliance with electromigration (EM) limits on bump current density and perform IR-drop correlation between die and package.
• Develop and maintain Calibre SVRF/TVF and IC Validator runsets customized per foundry PDK, managing layer name mappings, derived layers, and rule deck versioning.
• Implement incremental and cell-level DRC methodologies to accelerate design iteration turnaround — reducing full-chip DRC runtime by leveraging hierarchical cell reuse.
• Drive LVS signoff at all levels of the design hierarchy, establishing schematic-vs-layout equivalence across mixed-signal, standard cell, memory, and custom analog blocks.
• Own ERC (Electrical Rules Check) signoff including antenna, floating gate, and latch-up checks across full-chip context.
• Lead DFM signoff including critical area analysis (CAA), CMP density checks, and foundry-required DFM rule checks — prioritize and resolve _c (critical) violations before tapeout.
• Build and maintain robust PV automation infrastructure using Python, Perl, and Tcl — automate runset selection, job dispatch, result parsing, and signoff reporting.
• Present PV status, waiver summaries, and signoff readiness reports to executive leadership and foundry partners at tapeout reviews.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• 15+ years of ASIC physical verification experience with a proven track record of leading tapeouts at advanced nodes.
• Deep multi-foundry expertise across two or more of: Intel Foundry (18A/20A), TSMC (N2–N7), Samsung (SF3–SF5), GlobalFoundries (GF12/GF22).
• Multi-node experience spanning 28nm through 2nm, with strong knowledge of how DRC rule complexity evolves across nodes.
• Proven expertise in bump planning and package-level DRC for flip-chip, CoWoS, EMIB, Foveros, technologies.
• Experience with advanced packaging co-design flows integrating die-level GDSII with package substrate databases.
• Strong understanding of DFM concepts: critical area, CMP density, RDL reliability, and litho-aware design.
• Experience building and maintaining DRC regression infrastructure with automated trending and signoff dashboards.
• Familiarity with 2.5D/3D chiplet integration challenges — die-to-die connectivity DRC, TSV keep-out, and heterogeneous integration rule decks.
• Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration skills — ability to work with design, package, and foundry teams simultaneously.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.