Software Engineering, Staff Engineer

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.

The Team You'll Be Part Of

You will join the Systems Tool Kit (STK) development team within Ansys Government Initiatives, part of Synopsys. Ansys Government Initiatives (AGI), part of Synopsys, is seeking an experienced, top-performing developer to help design and develop the core platform capabilities of our flagship STK product. AGI develops commercial-off-the-shelf mission modeling software for the aerospace & defense industries. Our products are used from concept design through operations, and have been used on over 100 space missions, including NASA’s DART asteroid impact mission and Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander.

What You'll Be Doing

Design and develop core capabilities for STK, the flagship mission modeling and analysis software

Build and maintain production-grade code in C++, C#, and Python that powers aerospace and defense mission planning from concept through operations

Participate in product-level architecture discussions and technical planning, translating customer requirements into scalable software solutions

Lead technical reviews, mentor engineers across the team, and establish best practices that improve code quality and maintainability

Diagnose and resolve complex bugs across the platform, collaborating with QA to verify fixes and ensure release readiness

Own features end to end, from initial requirements and design through implementation, testing, deployment, and production maintenance

Work independently with minimal supervision and may take on some planning and mentoring responsibilities

The Impact You Will Have

Your architectural decisions will shape how aerospace and defense customers model and simulate missions that go to space

The code you write will support mission-critical operations for customers who depend on STK for real launches and real spacecraft

Your mentorship will raise the technical bar for the entire development team and accelerate how quickly engineers ship reliable features

The bugs you catch and fix will prevent downstream failures that could delay customer missions or product releases

Your API designs will determine how customers and internal teams extend and integrate with the STK application

The unit testing frameworks and standards you help establish will reduce defects and improve confidence in every release

What You'll Need

Bachelor's in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field with 5+ years of relevant experience, or Master's with 3+ years, or PhD with 1+ year

Demonstrated expertise in object-oriented design, functional programming, algorithms, data structures, and debugging at a systems level

Significant hands-on experience developing commercial applications in C++, C#, or Python

Proven ability to write robust, readable, and efficient code that ships and stays in production

Experience with software configuration management tools like Git or Perforce

Excellent technical knowledge of C++, C#, Python, API development, and software architecture is a strong plus

Background in air operations, aerospace engineering, or modeling and simulation software will set you apart

Who You Are

You have spent years building software that works in large codebases with complex interdependencies.

You do not need perfect requirements to get started, you ask the right questions, align with stakeholders, and find a way through ambiguity without creating more of it downstream.

You have learned that the best code is not necessarily the cleverest code, it is the code that someone else can read, debug, and extend when you are not in the room.

You are comfortable leading technical discussions without needing a title to do it. Mentoring does not feel like extra work to you, it is how you multiply your impact.

When you review someone else's code, you do not just catch bugs, you help them understand why a different approach would be clearer or more maintainable

You are comfortable working independently on complex problems, but you know when to pull in others and you do it before it becomes a blocker

You have delivered software in a large-scale commercial environment and you understand the difference between code that works on your machine and code that works in production

You can collaborate effectively across time zones and teams without losing context or momentum

You have a solid grasp of unit testing and frameworks like NUnit, and you write tests because you know they save time later, not because someone told you to

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.