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Senior Principal Integrated Circuit Process Design Kit (PDK) Developer

In Person (Linthicum, Maryland, United States of America)
Full Time
$127,000 – $190,600

Location:
Linthicum, Maryland, United States of America

About Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman solves the toughest problems in space, aeronautics, defense and cyberspace to meet the ever-evolving needs of our customers worldwide. Our 90,000 employees are Defining Possible every day using science, technology and engineering to create and deliver advanced systems, products and services. Northrop Grumman careers and internships are as varied as your interests, with a lifetime of potential that will allow you to work together with people from many backgrounds, personal passions and disciplines.

Northrop Grumman Mission Systems (NGMS) is seeking a Senior Principal Integrated Circuit Process Design Kit (PDK) Developer for the Engineering, Sciences, and Technology (ES&T) Organization. The position is located at the Advanced Technology Lab (ATL) - just outside of Baltimore, Maryland - where we design, manufacture, and test semiconductor and superconducting products for internal and commercial production as well as emerging programs. We are foremost seeking an engineer with strong capabilities across the spectrum of PDK development tasks that has also demonstrated strong technical project leadership and ability to advocate across adjacent disciplines (Design, Foundry, Test, etc.). An engineer that has only installed PDKs or tweaked existing PDKs will not suffice.

At Northrop Grumman our Integrated Circuit (IC) PDK Developers enjoy working on a variety of assignments across a broad range of topics and varying complexity. The IC PDK Developer will be called in to implement and lead the development of PDKs for a wide array of internal foundry technologies as well as augmenting existing commercial Foundry PDKs to allow Northrop Grumman circuit designers to develop discriminating capabilities. He/she will also work closely with management, designers, test, fabrication and integration engineers and foundry technologists to understand what is needed and provide the appropriate support to help the team accomplish assigned goals and tasks.

As an IC PDK Developer at Northrop Grumman, you can also effect change in how we pursue advanced technology development. If you see a better way to do things, you WILL have the opportunity to make those changes here at Northrop Grumman. The ideal candidate will have solid experiences in designing PDKs from scratch and familiarity with common industry EDA tools used in the design of Analog Integrated Circuits and/or ASICs.

Join us for the chance to work with an amazing, experienced, and talented team. We are expanding with new work on many development and production programs. If you want to work on a team where your coworkers are excited to come to work and solve problems, and where people are actively invested in their work, then Northrop Grumman is the right place for you.

Responsibilities include (but are not limited to):

  • Writing design verification rulefiles

  • Writing PDK techfiles

  • Writing skill-based P-Cells

  • Editing PDK model files

  • Writing scripts to create CAD capabilities

  • Reviewing PDK work of other PDK engineers

  • Maintaining PDK documentation

  • PDK configuration, release and deployment management

  • Leading PDK direction across multiple technologies

  • Champion and implement best practices and task automation

  • Interfacing with other foundry roles as a subject matter expert

  • Mentoring Junior/Mid-level PDK/CAD engineers

  • Participate in Agile project management workflows to drive projects to the finish line

  • Demonstrate capabilities to stakeholders and support for any feedback and modification

Basic qualifications:

  • Bachelor's degree in a technical area (BSEE or other Engineering discipline preferred) with 8 years of relevant experience (6 years with a MS, 3 years with a PhD)

  • Experience in interfacing with engineers and managers to schedule projects and provide schedule updates and roadmaps

  • Experience working closely with other foundry functions in the pursuit of process excellence

  • Strong analysis, design and problem-solving skills

  • Excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills

  • US Citizen with ability to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI with polygraph security clearance.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Semiconductor device modeling experience

  • Knowledge of semiconductor process development, design, manufacturing and testing

  • Experience taking lab measurements on process control monitor (PCM) test structures or interpreting results from automated testing of those structures

  • Experience utilizing the Spectre simulator to verify models match measurements

  • Experience creating and/or augmenting IC PDKs for compatibility with microelectronics foundry processes

  • Solid knowledge of the Cadence Virtuoso environment AND DRC/LVS/PEX within Cadence DIVA, Assura or Mentor Graphics Calibre

  • Experience generating scripts (SKILL, Python, PERL, Ocean, Linux Shell, etc.) to provide capabilities within a CAD environment

  • Solid interpersonal and team skills for cross-functional collaboration, high attention to detail, ability to self-check work outputs and ability to lead technical projects, awareness of configuration management principles

  • Ability to be flexible and adaptable in fast-changing environments

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