Principal Digital IC Design Engineer Location: Fareham, Hampshire (Hybrid Working Available) Salary: £87,000 + bonus Contract: Permanent Visa Sponsorship is available
We’re recruiting for a Principal Digital IC Design Engineer on behalf of a high-growth semiconductor organisation operating at the forefront of advanced electronics. This is a senior individual contributor role, ideal for a recognised technical expert who wants to drive digital IC innovation while influencing architecture, methodology and best practice across complex ASIC and MCU developments.
You’ll play a key role in shaping next-generation digital designs used in safety-critical and high-performance applications, working across multidisciplinary and global engineering teams.
The Role This position focuses on technical leadership across digital IC development, from architecture definition through to silicon validation.
As a Principal Engineer, you’ll provide deep technical expertise, guide design decisions, and act as a key contributor to complex projects, while mentoring engineers and influencing engineering standards across the organisation.
Key Responsibilities
- Define and influence digital architecture based on system and product requirements
- Lead complex digital design, implementation, verification and validation activities
- Drive performance, power and area optimisation across ASIC and MCU designs
- Act as a technical authority for digital IC design methodologies and best practices
- Contribute to and review RTL design, verification strategies and sign-off processes
- Support IP development, integration and evaluation of third-party IP
- Collaborate closely with analogue, software, systems and backend teams globally
- Provide technical mentorship and guidance to engineers across the team
- Support silicon bring-up, debug, validation and failure analysis
- Contribute to EDA tool evaluation and continuous improvement of design flows
Knowledge, Skills & Experience Essential:
- Degree-qualified (BEng/MEng) in Electronics, Engineering or related discipline
- Significant experience in digital or mixed-signal IC design (ASIC preferred)
- Strong expertise across the full digital IC design lifecycle (specification to silicon)
- Proven track record of delivering complex digital ICs or subsystems
- Deep understanding of RTL design, verification methodologies and timing closure
- Experience with low-power design techniques and optimisation
- Strong knowledge of EDA tools and digital design flows
- Experience in silicon debug and validation
- Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to influence technical decisions
Desirable:
- Exposure to mixed-signal environments
- Familiarity with full ASIC front-end and back-end flows
- Knowledge of IP integration and lifecycle management
- Scripting/automation experience (e.g. Python)
- Experience with tools such as JIRA and Confluence
Why Apply?
- Salary of £87,000 plus annual bonus
- Flexible hybrid working (typically 3 days on-site in Fareham)
- Senior technical role with significant influence on product architecture
- Opportunity to work on cutting-edge semiconductor technologies
- Collaborative, innovation-driven engineering environment
- Strong benefits package including pension, private medical and dental cover
- Clear progression path within a growing semiconductor organisation
- Visa Sponsorship available
For more information or to apply, contact: Lewis Phillips (phone number removed) (url removed)…