Synopsys

Applications Engineering, Staff Engineer - 18848

675 Almanor Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94085

On-site · Employee

First seen by offpeak October 6, 2026

See your drive time Apply on Synopsys's site

We Are
Synopsys 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 working with FPGAs and ASIC designs, and you know that getting a prototype to boot is rarely about the tool, it is about understanding what the design is actually doing. You have debugged partitioning failures, chased down clock domain issues, and figured out why a DDR interface works in simulation but fails on hardware. You do not just follow runbooks. You understand the flow well enough to know when something does not look right and how to dig deeper. You are comfortable talking to customer engineering teams about their designs, asking the right questions to understand what they are building, and translating that into a working ProtoCompiler flow. When something breaks, you can work through logs, timing reports, and RTL to figure out what went wrong and explain it in a way that makes sense. You have worked with interface IP like PCIe, DDR, Ethernet, or AXI, and you understand how these subsystems behave in a prototype versus simulation. At Synopsys, you will support customers deploying HAPS and ProtoCompiler on real SoC designs. The problems are technical, the customers are smart, and the work you do directly impacts whether their hardware brings up on schedule or slips by months. What You'll Be Doing

Support customer deployments of HAPS and ProtoCompiler, working through the ASIC-to-FPGA flow including partitioning, synthesis, place-and-route, timing closure, and hardware bring-up
Debug customer designs involving interface IP such as DDR4/DDR5, LPDDR, PCIe, Ethernet, USB, AXI, and other standard protocols
Reproduce and analyze technical issues reported by customers, working with R&D to identify root causes and deliver solutions or workarounds
Develop and document methodologies for partitioning strategies, clock architecture, debug instrumentation, and bring-up procedures
Collaborate with Sales and Customer Success teams to support technical evaluations, proof-of-concept engagements, and deployment planning
Use Verdi, ProtoCompiler runtime debug tools, and protocol analyzers to troubleshoot RTL, netlist, timing, and hardware issues

The Impact You Will Have

Help customers get their prototypes running so they can start software development and system validation weeks or months earlier
Solve technical problems that unblock critical customer milestones and keep their chip schedules on track
Provide feedback to R&D that improves ProtoCompiler features, usability, and robustness based on real customer use cases
Build reusable methodologies and documentation that help other applications engineers and customers deploy faster
Support competitive evaluations where your technical depth and problem-solving ability directly influence customer decisions
Contribute to the success of SoC programs across AI, automotive, networking, and mobile markets by enabling faster hardware availability

What You'll Need

Bachelor's or Master's in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent practical experience
5-8 years in FPGA implementation, ASIC design, ASIC verification, FPGA prototyping, or applications engineering
Solid experience with FPGA synthesis, place-and-route, and timing closure using Xilinx Vivado, Intel Quartus, or similar tools
Working knowledge of SystemVerilog, RTL design, and verification concepts
Hands-on experience with at least one interface IP family such as PCIe, DDR, Ethernet, USB, or AXI
Scripting ability in Tcl, Python, or shell for automation and flow customization
Experience with Synopsys HAPS, ProtoCompiler, or other FPGA-based prototyping platforms is a strong plus

Who You Are

You can look at a customer's partitioning result and spot the issues that will cause problems downstream before they waste days on place-and-route
When a customer says their design does not work, you ask specific questions to narrow down whether it is an RTL issue, a tool issue, a constraint issue, or a hardware issue
You are comfortable working with incomplete information and figuring out what you need to know to move forward
You can explain a technical problem to a customer engineer in a way that helps them understand what happened and what to do next
You do not panic when something breaks. You work through it methodically using logs, waveforms, timing reports, and whatever else is available
You learn quickly and are not afraid to dig into unfamiliar parts of a design or toolflow to understand what is going on

The Team You'll Be Part Of You will join the Hardware-Assisted Verification (HAV) Applications Engineering team, working with customers deploying HAPS and ProtoCompiler for FPGA-based prototyping. You will collaborate with other applications engineers, R&D, Product Management, and Sales teams to support customer success across semiconductor, AI, automotive, and systems companies.

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.

More jobs within a 30-minute drive of Palo Alto, CA