Freelance Digital Physical Design, DFT Engineer

Swave Photonics

Digital Physical Consultant at Swave Photonics responsible for digital back-end layout design of mixed-signal ICs. Requires expertise in Cadence tools and proven experience in physical design, optimizing layouts, and implementation.

Posted 6/14/2026contractLeuven • 🇧🇪 BelgiumMid-LevelSeniorWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Perl

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

As a consultant, you will take immediate ownership of our digital back-end layout design.
Digital Back-End Layout: Design and implement the digital layout for a mixed-signal IC.
Layout & Verification: Execute the physical design using Cadence tools and verify the layout using advanced physical verification tools.
PPA Optimization: Partner with the design team to optimize physical layouts for performance, power, and area (PPA).
Methodology Feedback: Provide immediate, actionable feedback to the design team to optimize design flows and physical implementation pipelines.
Bonus: DFT Implementation: Drive Design for Test (DFT) insertion, architecture, and strategy to ensure high test coverage.

Requirements

What you’ll need

Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering (EE) or a related technical field.
Experience: Minimum of 5 years of hands-on experience in digital back-end layout/physical design.
Technical Expertise: Proven track record in taking RTL to GDSII.
Solid understanding of layout design principles, design rules, and advanced process nodes.
Proficiency with Cadence digital layout tools.
Experience with physical verification tools like Calibre or ICV.
Familiarity with scripting languages (TCL, Perl) to optimize design flows.
Soft Skills: Strong analytical problem-solving skills, excellent communication, and a highly collaborative, team-first mindset.
Language: Professional fluency in English (written and spoken).

Benefits

Comp & perks

Impact: The chance to work on world-first, proprietary diffractive photonics technology.
Culture: An informal, vibrant, and highly collaborative environment built on mutual trust.
Rate: Competitive consultant day rate tailored to your expertise and seniority level.

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

digital back-end layout designmixed-signal ICphysical designPPA optimizationDFT implementationRTL to GDSIIlayout design principlesdesign rulesadvanced process nodesscripting languages

Soft Skills

analytical problem-solvingcommunicationcollaborative mindset

Certifications

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical EngineeringMaster’s degree in Electrical Engineering