The designs could be a wide range of processors, processor based SOCs, etc. As a physical design engineer you will get an opportunity to work on all aspects of physical design, starting from synthesis to physical verification and tapeout, including floor planning, static timing analysis, IO ring design, etc. You will get exposure to various design techniques in optimising the design for minimal silicon area, power dissipation and maximising the clock frequency.
Required Skill Set
Must have basic knowledge of digital design
Exposure to hardware description language like verilog.
Basic idea of physical design with exposure to one or more of synthesis, floor planning, timing analysis, etc
Good to have hands on experience in physical design tools from Synopsys, Cadence or Mentor Graphics