- Job title
- Backend EDA Compiler Engineer
- Job location
- San Francisco, CA, US
- Job description
- Partcl is ending the [**hardware lottery**](https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.06489).
We are developing the next generation of chip design automation tools with a focus on performance, scalability and productivity. We envision a future where hardware engineers benefit from advances in AI and believe the first place to start is with advanced optimization tools.
We’re looking for engineers who think in terms of intermediate representations and passes — people who can design the data models that physical-design tools run on, not just use them. You should be able to move seamlessly between high-level IR design and low-level performance work, building the infrastructure that lets placement, routing, and timing engines operate at massive scale.
At Partcl, we’re not here to play it safe - we’re here to win. We want people who wake up every day wanting to win too. If you are interested in solving massive-scale problems in physical AI, come join us.
**What you will do:**
* Design the **core intermediate representations** that physical-design tools use to reason about chips
* Build compiler-like pipelines that **lower, normalize, and transform** design data across stages (netlist → floorplan → PnR → sign-off)
* Architect the physical-design data model as a **first-class IR**, not just a storage format
* Create high-performance loaders, serializers, and transformation passes for LEF/DEF, Liberty, SPEF, GDS
* Develop APIs that make analysis and optimization passes fast to write and reason about
* Own correctness invariants: name resolution, scoping, units, coordinate systems, legalizations, constraints
* Optimize for **query latency, cache locality, memory layout, and parallel traversal**
* Build validation and rewriting passes that catch inconsistencies and automatically repair design data
* Work directly with PnR, STA, and optimization engineers to co-design **new IR features and passes**
* Treat the database as **a compiler backend**, not a dumping ground
**Requirements:**
* Strong background in **compilers or IR design** (LLVM, MLIR, TVM, CIRCT, or equivalent experience)
* Proficiency in **Rust** for low-level systems work; Python for tooling and pipelines
* Experience designing data structures for **large graphs / sparse relations / geometric data**
* Understanding of incremental computation, dependency tracking, and versioning of IR states
* Ability to reason about **correctness, determinism, and reproducibility** in complex toolchains
* Comfortable digging into massive designs and fixing pathological corner cases
**Nice to Have:**
* Experience with **CIRCT/MLIR** or custom EDA IRs
* Prior work on static analysis, transformation passes, or compiler runtimes
* Fluency with physical-design file formats: LEF/DEF, Liberty, SDC, SPEF, GDS
* Deep familiarity with chip backend concepts: floorplanning, placement, routing, CTS, extraction
* Knowledge of timing models (CCS/LVF) and constraint propagation
* Experience with columnar or in-memory formats (Apache Arrow, Parquet, custom SOA layouts)
* Parallel compiler / GPU acceleration experience
