Role Overview

Astera Labs is establishing a strategic R&D center in Israel to drive the development of complex semiconductor chips that solve the critical 'data bottlenecks' enabling the future of AI at scale. As we expand our presence in Israel, we're seeking a visionary Physical Design CAD Lead to help build our local engineering powerhouse from the ground up. This is a unique opportunity to take on meaningful product ownership in a new site, defining the backend execution and methodologies for chips that power the world's largest AI clusters.

As a Physical Design CAD Lead , you will be responsible for the physical implementation environment. Your primary mission is to build, optimize, and support the automated flows from RTL to manufacturable GDSII tape-out. You will own the flows, Database and will support the whole PD team to optimize their blocks for Power, Performance, Timing while keep the team aligned on Methodical, Efficient and balanced work Environment.  

Key Responsibilities

• Design and maintain automated flows for Synthesis, Place & Route, and Floor-planning
• Develop robust environments for Static Timing Analysis, Power Analysis, and Physical Verification (DRC/LVS/ERC)
• Write custom plug-ins and scripts to extend the capabilities of vendor tools, tailoring them to our specific process node constraints and flows 
• Create automated "dashboards" and feedback loops to help design teams track and improve Power, Performance, and Area metrics across iterations
• Collaborate with EDA vendors (Synopsys, Cadence, Siemens/Mentor) as consulters for our developed flows and results analysis      

Basic Qualifications

• B.Sc in Electrical Engineering 
• Professional experience with back-end industrial tool suites (e.g., Synopsys Fusion Compiler or Cadence Genus, Innovus) 
• Expert-level proficiency in Tcl and Python for high-level flow automation and data parsing 
• Deep understanding of Physical Design concepts including clock tree synthesis, routing congestion, timing closure, and signal integrity 
• Hands-on experience with sign-off flows 
• Very good communication skills
   

Preferred Experience

• Experience with 5nm, 3nm and more advanced processes
• Knowledge of compute farm management (LSF/Slurm) and revision control (Git) for managing massive design databases