Applications Engineering, Sr Staff Engineer

**Please note that this role can be based in the following locations: Exton, PA, Boulder, CO, Huntsville, AL, or Dayton, OH

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 building full stack applications where the interface is not just decoration, it is the difference between an engineer trusting your tool or abandoning it halfway through a workflow. You know that a well-designed UI can make a complex simulation feel intuitive, and a poorly designed one can bury critical insights under layers of frustration. You think in components, not just pages. You understand that reusable, interoperable web components are not a nice-to-have, they are the foundation of maintainable systems that scale across teams and projects.

You move fluidly between React or Angular on the front end and C#, Python, or Node.js on the back end without losing sight of what you are actually solving for. When someone says "we need this to work in a secure cloud environment," you do not freeze, you start mapping out Docker containers, microservices, and CI/CD pipelines that actually deploy. You have worked in environments where the stakes are high, maybe defense, maybe government, maybe just mission-critical systems where downtime is not an option. You lead projects, not by title, but by being the person who sees three steps ahead and keeps the team moving through ambiguity. At Synopsys Government Initiatives, you will build software that helps engineers and analysts in aerospace and defense extract real value from their simulations, and the work you do will matter in ways that go beyond the codebase.

What You'll Be Doing

Lead architecture, design, and development of full stack applications that integrate and automate Ansys simulation tools for aerospace and defense customers

Build front-end interfaces using HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and modern frameworks like React or Angular, with a focus on user experience that makes complex workflows feel intuitive

Develop back-end services and APIs using C#, Java, Python, or Node.js that power simulation automation and data processing pipelines

Design and implement reusable, interoperable web components following W3C specifications to ensure scalability and maintainability across projects

Deploy and manage solutions in cloud environments using Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines on platforms like AWS or Azure

Mentor developers, conduct technical reviews, and establish best practices for code quality, testing, and deployment across the team

Collaborate with project managers, designers, and customer stakeholders to translate mission needs into technical solutions that ship on time and meet security requirements

The Impact You Will Have

You will deliver software tools that enable engineers and analysts in national security to run simulations faster, more accurately, and with greater confidence in the results

Your UI/UX decisions will determine whether a frontline operator can extract the insight they need in five clicks or five minutes, and that difference matters in high-stakes environments

The reusable components and architectural patterns you establish will become the foundation for future projects, reducing development time and technical debt across the team

Your leadership on cloud deployment and containerization will enable secure, scalable solutions that meet DoD requirements and can be deployed across multiple customer environments

The code quality standards and mentorship you provide will raise the technical bar for the entire team and improve the reliability of every product you touch

Your ability to translate complex customer requirements into working software will directly shape how aerospace and defense customers use Ansys tools in their most critical workflows

The projects you lead will contribute to national security outcomes, giving you a direct line of sight between your work and real-world impact

What You'll Need

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or related field with 8 years of experience, Master's with 6 years, or PhD with 4 years

Deep proficiency in front-end technologies including HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and at least one modern framework such as React or Angular

Strong back-end development skills in at least two of the following: C#, Java, Python, Node.js

Hands-on experience with W3C Web Components specifications and building reusable, interoperable components

Proven ability to write robust, efficient, maintainable code with a track record of shipping production software

Experience with version control systems like Git and Agile development methodologies including sprint planning, stand-ups, and retrospectives

Familiarity with unit testing frameworks such as Jasmine, Karma, Jest, or Vitest, and a habit of writing tests that actually catch bugs

Who You Are

You can sit in a requirements meeting with a government customer, ask the right clarifying questions, and walk out with a development plan that your team can execute against

You have led projects from concept to deployment and know how to navigate the obstacles that come up between architecture and delivery without losing momentum

You push back when a design does not serve the user or when a technical decision will create problems six months down the road, and you do it in a way that moves the conversation forward

You are comfortable mentoring junior developers, not just reviewing their code but helping them understand why one approach scales and another does not

You can explain a complex technical tradeoff to a non-technical stakeholder in two sentences without losing the nuance or talking down to them

You are organized enough to manage multiple workstreams, detail-oriented enough to catch integration issues before they ship, and pragmatic enough to know when good enough is better than perfect

The Team You'll Be Part Of

You will join the Professional Services team within Ansys Government Initiatives, a group focused on developing, integrating, and automating Ansys simulation software for aerospace and defense customers. The team works closely with project managers, designers, and other developers to deliver custom solutions that meet specific customer requirements for design, engineering, and operations in high-security environments. This is a technical team where individual contributors lead projects, set architectural direction, and mentor others while staying hands-on with code. The work is collaborative, the problems are hard, and the customers depend on what you build to make critical decisions.