About Etched
Etched is building hardware for frontier intelligence. We co-design chips, racks, software, and manufacturing to deliver best-in-class throughput and latency across both prefill and decode workloads. Our first products are heavily focused on inference. Backed by hundreds of millions from top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Etched is redefining the infrastructure layer for the fastest growing industry in history.
Job Summary
Etched is looking for exceptional Physical Design engineers to join our team. In this role, you
will own block-level implementation and verification, drive timing closure and PPA optimization, supervise 3rd party design work, and help improve our design flows and iteration speed.
Key Responsibilities
Deeply understand what is involved in physical design
Running PD flows to close blocks, support ASIC infrastructure, automate PD flows,
improve CAD infrastructureCollaborate with RTL Designers and provide Physical Design feedback to improve PPA
Drive dashboards that show the convergence of projects related to PD
Optimize tool flows, working with EDA vendors to incorporate the latest features
Accountable for block level closure
Supervise the outsourcing of physical design to a 3rd party service
You may be a good fit if you have
5-10+ years of previous experience with PD
Tools, flow, and design methodology from RTL synthesis to GDSII sign-off
Experience with back-end design and timing closure on advanced process nodes (5nm
and below)Experience with Cadence (Innovus, Genus) or Synopsys (ICC2, Fusion Compiler)
automated RTL-to-GDSII flowsExperience with sign-off tools (PrimeTime, Tempus, Voltus, etc.)
Experience with UPF-based low power design methodology, power verification,synthesis, scan insertion/ATPG, formal verification, floorplanning, placement, CTS,
routing, IR drop, and EM/antenna analysisDeeply creative and able to think from first principles
Strong candidates may also have experience with
Familiarity with modern ML and LLM model architectures
Ability to program with Python or another scripting language
Familiarity with AI tools for programming/coding
Startup experience or comfort working in fast-paced environments
Benefits
Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage
$500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits
Housing subsidy of $2k per month for those living within walking distance of the office
Relocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)
Various wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more
Daily lunch + dinner in our office
Unlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification
How we’re different:
Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We are the first inference-focused frontier AI system, betting early on transformer and transformer-like architectures and on increasing model sizes. Our addressable market is the entirety of inference, unlike many of our competitors.
We are a fully in-person team in San Jose (Santana Row), and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both and work across disciplines as needed.
Skills Required
- 2+ years of previous experience with PD
- Tools, flow, and design methodology from RTL synthesis to GDSII sign-off
- Experience with back-end design and timing closure on 3nm-7nm
- Experience with UPF-based low power design methodology
- Ability to program with Python or another scripting language
Etched Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Etched and has not been reviewed or approved by Etched.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity growth is described as strong and significant equity is part of the package. High total compensation for technical roles reinforces the equity-led upside.
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Healthcare Strength — Medical, dental, and vision coverage include generous premium support, indicating robust core healthcare. This reduces employee cost exposure for essential coverage.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Daily lunch and dinner, a housing subsidy for those living near the office, relocation support, and wellness perks are highlighted. These offerings lower day-to-day living costs and support practical wellbeing.
Etched Insights
What We Do
By burning the transformer architecture into our chips, we’re creating the world’s most powerful servers for transformer inference.
