Physical Design Manager (AI)

Location: Hybrid in Silicon Valley, London, or New York City

Salary: $200K–$400K annually, plus equity

Company

hirify.global is an applied AI company building foundational hardware and software for the semiconductor industry, AI infrastructure, and advanced computing systems.

What you will do

• Lead the physical design team, including hiring, planning, mentoring, and performance feedback.
• Own the netlist-to-GDSII implementation flow, including floorplanning, power grid design, placement, clock tree synthesis, and place-and-route.
• Drive timing closure, static timing analysis, power, performance, area, signal integrity, and IR/EM optimization.
• Collaborate with RTL, architecture, and DFT teams on macro placement, pin assignments, and early physical feasibility.
• Lead physical signoff activities covering DRC, LVS, ERC, antenna fixes, and foundry handoff.
• Plan and execute tapeouts, including final stream-out and post-silicon physical debugging.

Requirements

• At least 3 successful tapeouts led from netlist through signoff, preferably at advanced technology nodes.
• Deep hands-on experience with physical design tools such as Innovus, IC Compiler II, Tempus, PrimeTime, Pegasus, or Calibre.
• Strong experience resolving STA timing bottlenecks, IR/EM issues, crosstalk, and DRC/LVS violations.
• At least 7 years of managerial experience in physical design or a related role.
• Ability to work cross-functionally with RTL, architecture, and DFT teams.
• Experience with TCL or Python automation for physical design flows.

Nice to have

• Experience at an AI or high-performance computing chip startup.
• Experience with custom memory or macro floorplanning, hierarchical top-level implementation, or advanced packaging such as chiplets and 2.5D/3D integration.

Culture & Benefits

• Cross-functional collaboration across hardware, software, RTL, architecture, and DFT teams.
• Work on novel computing architectures and advanced silicon systems.
• Equity is included in the compensation package.
• Inclusive equal-opportunity workplace with reasonable accessibility accommodations.