Senior Staff Engineer, Physical Design - NoC

As the pioneers who introduced RISC-V to the world, SiFive is transforming the future of compute by bringing the limitless potential of RISC-V to the highest performance and most data-intensive applications in the world. SiFive’s unrivaled compute platforms are continuing to enable leading technology companies around the world to innovate, optimize and deliver the most advanced solutions of tomorrow across every market segment of chip design, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, automotive, data center, mobile, and consumer. With SiFive, the future of RISC-V has no limits.

At SiFive, we are always excited to connect with talented individuals, who are just as passionate about driving innovation and changing the world as we are.  

Our constant innovation and ongoing success is down to our amazing teams of incredibly talented people, who collaborate and support each other to come up with truly groundbreaking ideas and solutions.  Solutions that will have a huge impact on people's lives; making the world a better place, one processor at a time. 

Are you ready?  

To learn more about SiFive’s phenomenal success and to see why we have won the GSA’s prestigious Most Respected Private Company Award (for the fourth time!), check out our website and Glassdoor pages.

Job Description:

About the Role -- 
At SiFive, we’re redefining the compute landscape with our industry-leading RISC-V compute platforms. As a Sr Staff Physical Design Engineer (NoC/Uncore), you will own and drive the implementation of massive, high-bandwidth interconnects and Uncore subsystems across multiple products from RTL to GDSII. You will be responsible for implementing and collaborating on the co-design of PPA-optimized solutions, focusing on achieving high-performance and power efficiency using the latest technology nodes.

While your primary focus will be physical design, this role requires you to operate fluidly across design-abstraction layers. You will act as a crucial bridge between architecture, RTL, and implementation, relying on deep backend expertise and system-level understanding to influence top-level architecture and micro-architecture. Your work will directly impact the scalability, bandwidth, and quality of our IP, in addition to implementation PPA.

Responsibilities - What you’ll do

• Lead NoC Implementation: Drive the complete physical design implementation for complex NoC and Uncore sub-systems, including synthesis, place & route, and signoff.

• Drive Cross-Abstraction-Layer Co-Design: Go beyond standard physical design implementation by actively engaging in Architecture/RTL/PD co-design. Understand the IP micro-architecture deeply enough to suggest RTL modifications, pipeline strategies, or architectural tweaks that resolve physical bottlenecks early.

• Solve NoC-Specific Challenges: Tackle complex physical bottlenecks unique to interconnects, long-distance timing closure, repeater/pipeline-stage insertion, and top-level clock distribution/methodology across massive die areas.

• Architectural Floorplanning: Drive top-level floorplanning, macro placement, hierarchical partitioning, and pin assignments to optimize data flow between CPU cores, accelerators, and memory boundaries.

• Aggressive PPA Optimization: Optimize implementation for aggressive PPA goals, managing trade-offs and optimizing design points for various high-performance product lines.

• Cross-Functional Leadership: Collaborate heavily with architecture, RTL, and power teams to drive co-design closure. Influence micro-architecture decisions early in the design cycle to prevent physical bottlenecks.

• Drive Methodology: Architect, support, and significantly improve physical design flows, automation, and methodology for top-level integration and hierarchical implementation across multiple technology nodes.

• Mentorship: Act as a technical pillar within the team, mentoring junior engineers and leading by example in driving process efficiency and design excellence.

Requirements - What you’ll bring

• 10+ years of hands-on experience in physical design implementation. Understanding of design, architecture and PPA tradeoffs are a plus.

• Cross-Abstraction-Layer Expertise (Highly Desired): A strong understanding of digital logic design, NoC micro-architecture, and system-level data flow is a major plus. You should be comfortable reading RTL; and engineering across abstraction layers to drive PPA optimization through architecture/design/implementation co-design.

• NoC/Uncore Expertise: Proven experience in physical design implementation of massive interconnects, coherent hubs, or complex memory subsystems. Familiarity with NoC architectures and the physical implications of high-bandwidth bus routing.

• Hierarchical Mastery: Deep expertise in top-level physical integration, hierarchical P&R methodologies, and global timing closure.

• Advanced Problem Solving: Proven ability to optimize for aggressive PPA targets using advanced physical design techniques, accompanied by a detail-oriented mindset and clear communication skills.

• Tool Proficiency: Hands-on knowledge of RTL to GDS implementation with Synopsys and/or Cadence synthesis, PnR and signoff implementation tools.

• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s in Electrical or Computer Engineering.

Why join us?

• Be part of the RISC-V movement and help define the future of computing architecture.

• Work on industry-leading IP adopted by top customers and shipped in high volumes worldwide.

• Collaborate with world-class engineers in a supportive, fast-paced, learning environment.

• Enjoy a culture that values innovation, ownership, and technical excellence.

• Our large IP portfolio offers opportunities to engineer solutions across multiple IPs and product families over time.

Additional Information:

This position requires a successful background and reference checks and satisfactory proof of your right to work in:

Any offer of employment for this position is also contingent on the Company verifying that you are a authorized for access to export-controlled technology under applicable export control laws or, if you are not already authorized, our ability to successfully obtain any necessary export license(s) or other approvals.

SiFive is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.