Principal Software Engineer in Cambridge

Location: Cambridge, United Kingdom

Reports to: Senior Principal Software Engineer

At Cadence, we hire and develop leaders and innovators who want to make an impact on the world of technology. Cadence is a pivotal leader in electronic design, building upon more than 30 years of computational software expertise. The company applies its underlying Intelligent System Design strategy to deliver software, hardware and IP that turn design concepts into reality. Cadence customers are the world’s most innovative companies, delivering extraordinary electronic products from chips to boards to systems for the most dynamic market applications including consumer, hyperscale computing, 5G communications, automotive, aerospace industrial and health.

The Cerebrus™ Intelligent Chip Explorer is the product that provides a machine learning-driven, automated approach to chip design flow optimization. This product has recently been launched and this is an opportunity to contribute to this product and drive its future roadmap. The Cambridge Cerebrus™ team is primarily responsible for the infrastructure of the Cerebrus™ product. This involves the design of the application of the machine learning algorithms onto the customer flows thereby ensuring the best quality of results is achieved while making efficient use of all machine resources.

We are looking for a highly motivated Software Engineer to work with the Digital Design and Signoff Group engineering team. You will be joining a small, expanding, exciting team responsible for innovating, designing, and developing key technology used within the Cerebrus™ product. The team is based in Cambridge, UK working within a global team.

Job Responsibilities

• Design, implementation and validation of new functionality to apply machine learning methods to digital design flows.
• Validation and analysis of these functionalities on benchmark designs to measure achieved improvements.
• R&D support of application and product engineers for customer problems and requests. This consists of problem analysis, debugging and fixing, or the development of new features and enhancements.
• The applicant will be comfortable taking ownership of their code.
• The role will cover design and development of infrastructure to support product flows and big data functionalities.
• Strong programming and technical specification skills are required.
• You will take the product through all stages of the development cycle, including specification, development, testing, customer support, product deployment, etc.
• Qualified applicants must be able to initiate original and creative technical efforts and work efficiently within a distributed organization.

Job Qualifications

• 5 years of experience in SW development under Unix.
• Degree in computer science or other numerate disciplines from a respected institution.
• Experience writing programs in C++ (C++14/17) and Python 3 or other object-oriented languages.
• Desire to understand and master the data structures, algorithms and interactions used within the digital flows of the worlds leading chip design companies.
• The individual tenacity to investigate and debug complex data-driven reported issues.
• Motivation to learn and adapt the use of the other digital flow tools: Genus™, Innovus™, Tempus™, etc.
• Fully contribute and engage within a small team to develop new innovative algorithms for challenging and hard to solve problems.
• Cerebrus is developed across multiple global sites (Cambridge UK, San Jose USA, Shanghai, India).
• Communication in English is required as well as an ability to communicate and collaborate in a distributed international team through use of online collaboration tools.
• Have fun competing for technical leadership in a technically challenging and innovative market.

Good To Have

• Experience of software development in TCL.
• Any knowledge in electronic design automation.

Personality

• Inquisitive
• Interested in technical detail
• Excited by innovation
• Ability to work independently as well as contribute and communicate within the local and global team environment

Check What We Can Offer You

• Competitive salary
• 25 days holiday per year
• Private Medical and Dental plans, Income Protection and Life Insurance
• Group Personal Pension Plan
• Cycle to work scheme and gym subsidy
• 5 days paid time to volunteer to give back to our communities
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• The opportunity to work for a Great Place to Work© & Fortune 100 organisation

Additional Information

Cadence regularly achieves a high ranking in the Great Place to Work awards both in the UK and Worldwide, most recently having been #9 Worldwide in 2023 and 2024. Cadence is committed to equal employment opportunity and employment equity throughout all levels of the organization. We strive to attract a qualified and diverse candidate pool and encourage diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Be proud and passionate about the work you do. Together, our “One Cadence -- One Team” culture drives our success. We’re doing work that matters. Help us solve what others can’t.