Physical Design Intern

Job Description

About Etched

Etched is at the forefront of innovation, building the world’s first AI inference system specifically designed for transformers. This groundbreaking technology promises to deliver over 10 times higher performance, dramatically lower cost, and reduced latency compared to a B200 GPU. With Etched ASICs, developers can unlock the potential for previously impossible applications, such as real-time video generation models and highly deep and parallel chain-of-thought reasoning agents. Backed by hundreds of millions in funding from top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Etched is actively redefining the infrastructure layer for the fastest-growing industry in history.

Job Title: Physical Design Intern

Location: San Jose, CA (Fully In-Person)

Internship Duration: 12 weeks (August – December 2026)

Job Summary

As a Physical Design intern at Etched, you will play a crucial role in transforming front-end designs into silicon, contributing to the acceleration of iteration speed towards final signoff. Your responsibilities will include assisting in the development and execution of Physical Design flows, synthesizing blocks, automating final design checks, and providing valuable insights to guide RTL design decisions.

Key Responsibilities

• Assist in developing and running Physical Design flows.
• Synthesize digital blocks to meet performance and power targets.
• Automate final design checks to ensure design integrity.
• Provide feedback and advise RTL design teams on physical implementation constraints and considerations.
• Contribute to improving the overall iteration speed from design to silicon signoff.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications (May be a good fit if you have):

• Progress towards a Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or a related field.
• Familiarity with high-speed digital logic concepts.
• Exposure to ASIC or SoC design principles and methodologies.
• Familiarity with hardware description languages like SystemVerilog.
• Familiarity with verification work and the process of writing test benches.
• Familiarity with physical design flows and relevant EDA tooling.
• Ability to learn quickly about transformers and other aspects of modern artificial intelligence.

Preferred Qualifications (Strong candidates may also have experience with):

• Familiarity with transformer models and machine learning concepts.
• Familiarity with numerical representations and functions in RTL.
• Familiarity with clocking and reset schemes (both at RTL and Physical Design levels).
• Experience with UVM (Universal Verification Methodology) or formal verification (DV).
• Ability to program with Python or another scripting language.

We encourage you to apply even if you do not believe you meet every single qualification.

Program Details

• 12-week paid internship program, running from August to December 2026.
• Generous housing support provided for interns relocating to San Jose, CA.
• Complimentary daily lunch and dinner served at our San Jose office.
• Opportunity for direct mentorship from industry leaders and world-class engineers.
• Chance to work on one of the most significant and impactful problems of our time in AI infrastructure.

How We’re Different

Etched operates on the principle of the “Bitter Lesson,” believing that substantial progress in AI stems from increasing computational FLOPs for model training and inference. Our strategy focuses on developing model-specific hardware (ASICs) to achieve higher FLOPs, driven by the observation that larger training runs lead to consolidation around fewer model architectures, thereby creating a market for single-model ASICs.

We are a fully in-person team based in San Jose (Santana Row), placing a high value on engineering skills. At Etched, the lines between engineering and research are blurred; we expect all technical staff to contribute to both areas as needed, fostering a collaborative and innovative environment.

For any questions regarding the internship program, please contact internships@etched.com.