About this opportunity
Synopsys lists this Applications Engineering, Sr Engineer opportunity in sunnyvale, California. Review the employer’s description below for duties, qualifications and application requirements.
Job description
We AreSynopsys is the leader in engineering solutions from silicon to systems, enabling customers to rapidly innovate AI-powered products. We deliver industry-leading silicon design, IP, simulation and analysis solutions, and design services. We partner closely with our customers across a wide range of industries to maximize their R&D capability and productivity, powering innovation today that ignites the ingenuity of tomorrow.
You Are
You have spent years in the verification trenches, debugging mismatches and building flows that hold up when the design scales. The difference between a verification environment that catches bugs and one that creates them is something you feel in your bones, and you have learned to spot the weak points before they become customer escalations. You are equally comfortable sitting with an R&D team discussing simulator architecture and walking a customer through a UVM testbench issue that is blocking their tapeout.
When a customer says "it worked yesterday," you do not panic. You ask three clarifying questions, pull logs, and usually find the answer in the delta between tool versions or an edge case no one thought to test. You think in terms of deployment success, not just feature lists. A tool is only as good as the customer's ability to use it, and you take ownership of that entire arc.
You do not wait for perfect documentation. You read code, you experiment, you build proof of concepts, and you bring solutions that work. At Synopsys, you will work on VCS deployments that directly affect whether chips tape out on schedule, and you will have the technical depth and customer access to make that difference real.
What You'll Be Doing
Lead VCS simulation deployments at customer sites, working directly with design and verification teams to integrate the tool into their existing flows and resolve adoption blockers
Diagnose complex simulation mismatches, performance bottlenecks, and verification environment issues using VCS, Verdi, and related debugging infrastructure
Partner with field application engineers and R&D to translate customer pain points into actionable product requirements and validate fixes in real customer environments
Drive competitive evaluations and benchmarking engagements, demonstrating VCS capabilities and building the technical case for adoption
Develop automation scripts in Perl, TCL, Shell, and Make to streamline customer workflows, improve simulation throughput, and reduce manual intervention
Interface with product validation and R&D teams to propose improvements in simulation accuracy, performance, and usability based on field feedback
Support customers using advanced verification methodologies including UVM, SVA, low-power simulation, gate-level verification, and functional safety flows
The Impact You Will Have
Directly enable customer tapeouts by resolving critical verification blockers that would otherwise delay silicon schedules by weeks or months
Shape the VCS product roadmap by surfacing real-world deployment challenges and competitive gaps that R&D would not see from internal testing alone
Accelerate verification cycles for customers by introducing AI-driven productivity features, advanced debugging techniques, and optimized simulation configurations
Strengthen Synopsys' competitive position in the simulation market by winning head-to-head benchmarks and converting evaluations into long-term deployments
Improve product quality and robustness by identifying edge cases, usability issues, and integration gaps during customer engagements
Build deep technical relationships with leading semiconductor companies, becoming the trusted advisor they call when verification gets hard
Contribute to the success of chips powering AI, automotive, mobile, and data center applications by ensuring verification infrastructure does not become the bottleneck
What You'll Need
Bachelor's in Electronics or Computer Engineering with 5+ years of experience, or Master's with 3+ years, focused on digital design verification
Deep hands-on experience with simulation technologies, including VCS or equivalent commercial simulators, and strong understanding of event-driven simulation internals
Proficiency in SystemVerilog, UVM, SVA, and HDL languages like Verilog and VHDL, with the ability to read and debug complex testbenches and RTL
Proven track record debugging simulation mismatches, performance issues, and verification flow problems in production customer environments
Strong scripting skills in Perl, TCL, Shell, and Make, with the ability to automate workflows and build tooling that improves engineer productivity
Working knowledge of UNIX/Linux environments, version control systems, and large-scale verification infrastructure
Experience with Synopsys tools like Verdi, exposure to low-power simulation, gate-level verification, and functional safety methodologies is a strong plus
Who You Are
Comfortable working across time zones with global R&D teams in India, Europe, and the U.S., balancing multiple customer escalations without losing track of the details that matter
You do not need to be the loudest person in the room, but you have a point of view and you push back when a proposed solution does not match the actual problem
Organized enough to manage two customer deployments, one competitive evaluation, and an R&D collaboration without dropping threads or missing follow-ups
You are genuinely curious about how things work under the hood, whether that is a simulator's scheduling algorithm or a customer's custom verification methodology, and that curiosity makes you better at solving problems
You can explain a complex simulation mismatch to a customer's engineering director in two sentences without losing the technical nuance that matters for the fix
You treat customer success as your success, which means you stay on an issue until it is resolved, not just until your shift ends
The Team You'll Be Part Of
Your recruiter will share more about the team structure and mission during the interview process.
Rewards and Benefits
We offer a comprehensive range of health, wellness, and financial benefits to cater to your needs. Our total rewards include both monetary and non-monetary offerings. Your recruiter will provide more details about the salary range and benefits during the hiring process.
At Synopsys, we want talented people of every background to feel valued and supported to do their best work. Synopsys considers all applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, military veteran status, or disability.
In addition to the base salary, this role may be eligible for an annual bonus, equity, and other discretionary bonuses. Synopsys offers comprehensive health, wellness, and financial benefits as part of a competitive total rewards package. The actual compensation offered will be based on a number of job-related factors, including location, skills, experience, and education. Your recruiter can share more specific details on the total rewards package upon request. The base salary range for this role is across the U.S.
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Who can apply
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