ASIC Digital Design, Sr Staff Engineer

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 deep in the emulation trenches, where the difference between a clean bring-up and a six-month debug spiral comes down to decisions you made in the verification plan three months earlier. You know PCIe and DDR not just as protocols but as living, breathing systems with corner cases that only reveal themselves under emulation at scale. You have used Zebu or similar platforms enough to know when to trust the model and when to dig deeper, and you have built the muscle memory to bridge what the emulation IP can do and what the design IP actually needs.

You do not wait for perfect alignment between teams. You see the gap between Controller verification and PHY validation, and you build the bridge yourself. You ask the right questions, pull the right stakeholders into the room, and move the work forward without creating downstream chaos. Standards documents do not intimidate you. You read the errata, interpret the ECNs, and translate them into actionable requirements before anyone else realizes they matter.

At Synopsys, you will work on IP that powers the semiconductor industry. The team is global, the problems are hard, and what you build will ship in products that matter.

What You'll Be Doing

Close the gap between Emulation IP capabilities and Design IP verification needs across Controller and PHY domains, ensuring seamless integration and coverage

Define technical requirements for Emulation IP development, working directly with IP teams to ensure correct implementation and deployment in verification flows

Track, report, and drive improvement on key emulation metrics including IP quality, coverage completeness, and verification cycle time

Stay ahead of evolving PCIe and DDR standards, interpret specification changes, errata, and ECNs, and integrate those updates into emulation and design IP strategies

Review and validate test plans for both Emulation IP and Design IP, ensuring traceability, feature coverage, and right-first-time product quality

Collaborate cross-functionally with verification, design, and product teams across geographies to standardize methodologies and optimize emulation workflows

Mentor engineers on emulation best practices, verification strategies, and advanced debugging techniques on Zebu and similar platforms

The Impact You Will Have

Accelerate time to market for high-performance silicon by enabling faster, more reliable pre-silicon validation cycles

Drive adoption of best-in-class emulation methodologies across Synopsys IP teams, raising the bar for verification quality and efficiency

Influence the next generation of Emulation IP products by defining requirements grounded in real verification use cases and customer needs

Reduce post-silicon surprises by ensuring comprehensive coverage and traceability across Controller and PHY verification domains

Standardize emulation workflows across global teams, improving collaboration, reuse, and compliance with organizational goals

Position Synopsys as a leader in emulation-driven verification by championing innovation and continuous improvement in IP development

Elevate product quality and end-customer satisfaction by bridging technical gaps and ensuring seamless integration across complex IP ecosystems

What You'll Need

You have 8+ years of hands-on experience in emulation, IP verification, or ASIC digital design

You bring deep expertise in PCIe and DDR protocols, including verification strategies, corner cases, and standards compliance

You possess extensive experience with Zebu or similar emulation platforms, particularly for IP-level verification and system-level integration

You have a proven track record leading or contributing to IP product development with a focus on emulation-based verification

You have a strong ability to work across global, matrixed teams and drive alignment between emulation IP and design IP organizations

You possess excellent communication skills - you can explain a complex tradeoff to a design lead in two sentences without losing the nuance

Experience interpreting and applying industry standards updates, ECNs, and errata in real verification contexts is a strong plus

Who You Are

You can walk into a room with conflicting verification priorities and walk out with a clear plan that everyone agrees will actually work

You do not need someone to tell you a standard has changed, you are already reading the errata and figuring out what it means for your IP before the question gets asked

You know when to push back on a test plan that looks complete but is missing critical corner cases, and you do it in a way that moves the work forward

You treat mentorship as part of the job, not an extra, and you make time to help engineers level up on emulation techniques and debugging strategies

You are comfortable being the bridge between teams that speak different technical languages, translating between emulation IP developers and design verification engineers without losing the nuance

You stay calm when emulation runs fail at 3am before a milestone, and you know how to triage, escalate, and resolve without creating panic

The Team You'll Be Part Of

You will join a dynamic, high-performing engineering team focused on IP development, emulation, and verification at the forefront of semiconductor innovation. Our team is collaborative, cross-functional, and globally distributed, working together to solve complex challenges and deliver industry-leading solutions. You will have the opportunity to collaborate with experts across multiple domains, drive impactful initiatives, and shape the future of digital design and verification at Synopsys.

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.