CAD / Design Enablement Engineer

Salary: Competitive and based on experience Location: Hsinchu Keywords: collaborate, support, connective, enablement, responsive, dependable, co-operate, inclusive, knowledgeable, team

A leading IC design house in Hsinchu is seeking a CAD and Design Enablement Engineer to become the essential link between design teams, foundries, and IP vendors. This role offers broad ownership and direct impact, ensuring that every PDK, design kit, IP deliverable, and tool flow is ready and qualified before designers need them. You will be the primary contact for external partners, managing everything from license servers to sign-off flows, and representing the company in regular conversations with foundry customer engineers and third-party IP suppliers. If you thrive on connecting people, tools, and processes—and enjoy supporting others by making their work seamless—this opportunity provides a unique chance to shape the environment that enables cutting-edge IC design. The organisation values flexibility, quick decision-making, and a supportive team culture where your ideas are heard and implemented without unnecessary bureaucracy.

• Enjoy broad ownership of the EDA environment, touching everything from license servers to sign-off flows while directly impacting every design team’s productivity.
• Become the primary point of contact for foundries and IP vendors, building trusted relationships and ensuring smooth delivery of PDKs, design kits, and IP deliverables.
• Work within a small, inclusive team where good ideas ship fast, your contributions are visible, and you’re empowered to improve processes without being buried under layers of procedure.

What you'll do:

As a CAD and Design Enablement Engineer based in Hsinchu you will play a pivotal role in ensuring that every aspect of the EDA environment is optimised for success. Your day-to-day responsibilities will involve acting as the primary liaison between internal design teams and external partners such as foundries or IP vendors. You will proactively manage access credentials on vendor portals while tracking versions of critical deliverables like PDKs or design kits. By installing toolchains from major vendors—including Synopsys or Cadence—you’ll guarantee that workflows are robustly integrated. Automation will be key: you’ll develop scripts to streamline setup processes while maintaining regression testing infrastructure for ongoing qualification. Supporting designers is central to this role; you’ll document procedures clearly so colleagues can resolve issues independently. Ultimately your efforts will enable faster turnaround times with greater reliability across all projects.

• Act as the main interface with foundry customer engineers and third-party IP suppliers by initiating regular outreach to download, track, and stage PDKs, design kits, reference flows, and IP deliverables including digital/analog IP, memory compilers, I/O, standard cells.
• Maintain access credentials and entitlements on foundry and IP-vendor portals while managing NDAs, deliverable revisions, release notes, and ensuring compliance across all documentation.
• Track versions of design kits and IP deliverables; flag updates or engineering change notifications (ECNs) and coordinate qualification before rollout to internal teams.
• Open tickets or cases with foundries and vendors; escalate issues as needed and follow up persistently until resolution is achieved for all stakeholders.
• Install, configure, and qualify PDKs and design kits across industry-standard toolchains such as Synopsys, Cadence, Siemens EDA to ensure seamless integration into workflows.
• Build and maintain flows for synthesis, place & route, static timing analysis (STA), DRC/LVS checks, and other sign-off steps critical to successful IC design projects.
• Develop automation scripts using TCL, Python, Perl, Make or shell scripting to streamline setup processes, regression testing routines, and reporting mechanisms for greater efficiency.
• Manage compute environments including license servers (FlexLM/license daemons), job scheduling systems (LSF/Slurm/SGE), storage solutions, and version control infrastructure.
• Maintain regression testing infrastructure as well as continuous integration (CI) systems for flow qualification and design-kit validation.
• Provide first-line support for designers on tool usage issues related to flows, PDKs or IP; document setups thoroughly so the team can self-serve efficiently.

What you bring:

To excel as a CAD and Design Enablement Engineer you will bring proven expertise in managing complex EDA environments alongside strong technical skills in scripting automation toolchain integration. Your educational background in electrical or computer engineering ensures you understand both theoretical concepts and practical applications within IC design flows. Experience working directly with major EDA vendors equips you to handle installations qualifications troubleshooting efficiently. Your comfort with Linux administration means you can support collaborative compute environments reliably. Communication is paramount: you must be organised responsive empathetic when interacting with external partners—ensuring all deliverables are tracked managed qualified before rollout. Prior exposure to multiple foundries diverse methodologies or startup settings further strengthens your candidacy by demonstrating adaptability resourcefulness commitment to communal success.

• BS/MS degree in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering—or equivalent practical experience—demonstrating foundational knowledge relevant to IC design environments.
• Solid understanding of IC design flows including RTL-to-GDS or analog/custom methodologies; familiarity with how PDKs and IP fit into these processes is essential.
• Hands-on experience working with EDA tools from at least one major vendor such as Synopsys Cadence or Siemens EDA; ability to install qualify manage these tools effectively.
• Direct experience handling foundry PDKs as well as third-party IP deliverables including installation qualification version management across multiple projects.
• Strong scripting skills in Python TCL shell scripting Perl or Make; proven ability to automate setup regression testing reporting tasks within complex environments.
• Comfort administering Linux-based compute environments including license servers job schedulers storage solutions version control systems supporting collaborative workflows.
• Excellent communication skills coupled with responsive follow-through; ability to represent the company externally with professionalism organisation empathy proactive problem-solving.
• Prior experience serving as a foundry/IP point of contact or working in a CAD/Design Enablement role would be highly beneficial for this position.
• Familiarity with multiple foundries such as TSMC Samsung GlobalFoundries UMC including their portals deliverable formats enhances your effectiveness in this role.
• Exposure to DFT CDC/RDC methodology areas plus startup or small-team experience—comfortable wearing multiple hats setting up new processes from scratch—is advantageous.