Staff Engineer, Physical Design LEC

Tenstorrent is building next-generation AI hardware, combining innovations in software, compilers, and RISC-V CPU design. Our team is passionate about performance, efficiency, and solving complex problems in silicon and systems.

We’re looking for a Physical Design Engineer – LEC & Implementation to join our silicon team. You’ll own logical equivalence checking and support physical implementation tasks including synthesis, PnR, and timing closure—ensuring design correctness and tapeout readiness.

This role is hybrid, based out of Austin, TX or Santa Clara, CA.

We welcome candidates at various experience levels for this role. During the interview process, candidates will be assessed for the appropriate level, and offers will align with that level, which may differ from the one in this posting.

Who You Are

• A detail-oriented engineer with strong experience in physical design and logical equivalence checking.
• Comfortable working across RTL, synthesis, PnR, and sign-off workflows.
• Skilled at debugging complex implementation or verification mismatches and providing actionable insights.
• A collaborative team player who communicates clearly and works effectively across disciplines.

What We Need

• 5+ years of experience in physical design, with hands-on LEC ownership.
• Strong understanding of RTL design, synthesis, and equivalence checking.
• Proficiency with physical implementation tasks such as floorplanning, timing closure, I/O planning, and power optimization.
• Experience using industry-standard EDA tools for synthesis, PnR, LEC, and timing (e.g., Synopsys, Cadence, Siemens).
• Solid scripting skills (Python, TCL, Perl) to build automation and improve design efficiency.
• Familiarity with ECO flows, and block- or chip-level timing closure on successful taped-out designs.

What You Will Learn

• How to scale LEC and implementation flows for Tenstorrent’s RISC-V and AI hardware platforms.
• Best practices for maintaining functional correctness across RTL and gate-level stages in aggressive schedules.
• How to integrate feedback from design, DV, and layout to accelerate convergence.
• Opportunities to influence and improve design methodology and signoff processes in a fast-moving environment.

Compensation for all engineers at Tenstorrent ranges from $100k - $500k including base and variable compensation targets. Experience, skills, education, background and location all impact the actual offer made.

Tenstorrent offers a highly competitive compensation package and benefits, and we are an equal opportunity employer.

Due to U.S. Export Control laws and regulations, Tenstorrent is required to ensure compliance with licensing regulations when transferring technology to nationals of certain countries that have been licensing conditions set  by the U.S. government.

Our engineering positions and certain engineering support positions require access to information, systems, or technologies that are subject to U.S. Export Control laws and regulations, please note that citizenship/permanent residency, asylee and refugee information and/or documentation will be required and considered as Tenstorrent moves through the employment process.

If a U.S. export license is required, employment will not begin until a license with acceptable conditions is granted by the U.S. government.  If a U.S. export license with acceptable conditions is not granted by the U.S. government, then the offer of employment will be rescinded.