Principal Digital IC Designer

Location: Milan, Italy – NXP Semiconductors

NXP Semiconductors is seeking a Principal Digital IC Designer to contribute high-level technical expertise in the development of complex mixed-signal integrated circuits for automotive and industrial electrification applications.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership

• Act as a high-level technical reference for digital IC design within the assigned product domain.
• Contribute to definition and review of digital architectures for complex mixed-signal ICs.
• Support architectural trade-offs across performance, power, safety, testability, and cost.
• Collaborate with the digital verification team ensuring alignment and quality.
• Promote best practices and standards in digital design.

Product and Portfolio Scope

• Provide technical guidance across one or more programs in parallel.
• Collaborate with architects, product line, and application teams to align technical specifications.
• Foster reuse and scalability of digital architectures and IPs.

Design Execution and Quality

• Perform and/or supervise RTL design, synthesis, integration, and sign-off.
• Review RTL implementations, design documentation, and sign-off results (timing, power, CDC, DFT).
• Support bring-up and debug on first silicon.
• Understand UVM and digital verification methodologies.

Safety‑Critical Design

• Ensure compliance with automotive quality and safety standards.
• Contribute to definition and evaluation of digital safety mechanisms.
• Participate in safety reviews and analysis with functional safety teams.

Mentoring and Knowledge Transfer

• Mentor junior designers and support team competence development.
• Share expertise across teams and international sites.

Required Skills

• Master’s or PhD degree in Electrical Engineering or equivalent.
• Minimum 12 years of experience in digital IC design.
• Strong experience as lead designer in complex projects.
• Expert knowledge of RTL design (System Verilog/Verilog).
• Experience with multi-clock, multi-power and reset strategies.
• Familiarity with synthesis constraints and DFT concepts.
• Experience in mixed-signal IC environments.
• Understanding of automotive and safety-critical methodologies.
• Experience with industry-standard EDA tools (Matlab, Synopsys, Cadence, Siemens).
• Fluent written and spoken English.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with automotive or industrial electrification ICs (BMS, gate drivers, power management).
• Familiarity with Digital Signal Processing.
• Experience influencing technical direction within a team or product line.
• International R&D experience.

More information about NXP in Italy...