Applications Engineering, Principal Engineer

Synopsys; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Synopsys is seeking a Principal Application Engineer specialized in timing signoff in Sunnyvale, CA. You will diagnose timing issues on tapeouts, guide customers through complex signoff challenges, and collaborate with product teams to enhance our timing solutions.

You have a decade of hands-on timing analysis experience with PrimeTime and related tools, and you will mentor junior engineers while helping customers meet aggressive schedules in a fast-paced product environment.

Qualifications

• You have spent a decade or more in timing signoff and tapeout readiness.
• Strong skill diagnosing timing violations under schedule pressure.
• Ability to explain tradeoffs clearly to design leads and managers.
• Fluent with PrimeTime, debugging corner-case failures, and methodology balance.

Responsibilities

• Support customer tapeouts for leading-edge designs and diagnose timing, power, and signoff issues.
• Deploy new signoff features with customers, guiding beta testing and integration.
• Translate customer requirements into actionable product enhancements with data.
• Create technical training content, demos, and methodology documentation.
• Replicate, debug, and escalate product issues across teams to protect schedules.
• Mentor applications engineers on timing signoff best practices and flows.
• Align enablement plans with account strategy to support customers at key stages.

Skills

Timing signoff

PrimeTime

Customer-facing

Cross-team collaboration

Education

Master's degree in CS/EE

Tools

PrimeTime

PrimeShield

PrimeClosure

PrimePower

StarRC

Job description

Principal Application Engineer- Timing Sign Off

Job ID

18326

City

Sunnyvale

State/Province

California

Date Posted

04-Aug-2026

Job Category

Job Subcategory

Applications Engineering

Employee

No

Base Salary Range: $160000 - $ 240000

Descriptions & Requirements

Job Description and Requirements

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 a decade or more in the trenches of timing signoff, and you know that the moment a customer says "we're ready to tape out" is when the real work begins. The difference between a chip that ships on schedule and one that doesn't often comes down to someone who can diagnose a cryptic timing violation at 2 a.m., propose a workaround that doesn't blow up the methodology, and explain the tradeoff clearly enough that the design lead trusts it.

You are fluent in PrimeTime the way some people are fluent in a second language. You have debugged enough corner case failures to know when a problem is tool behavior, user error, or an actual design issue, and you can tell the difference in about ten minutes. When a customer hits a wall three days before tapeout, you do not panic. You ask the right questions, pull the right data, and find a path through.

You have worked closely enough with product teams to know what belongs in a feature request and what belongs in a methodology guide. Mentoring comes naturally to you because you remember what it felt like not to know, and you care about making the next engineer better. At Synopsys, you will work with the most advanced chip designs in the world, and what you enable will directly determine whether those chips make it to market.

What You'll Be Doing

• Support customer tapeouts for leading edge designs, diagnosing timing, power, and signoff issues in PrimeTime, PrimeShield, PrimeClosure, and PrimePower under real schedule pressure
• Deploy newly developed signoff features with customers, working through beta testing, adoption blockers, and methodology integration in live design environments
• Evaluate customer requirements and translate them into actionable enhancement requests for the product development team, backed by real use cases and data
• Build and deliver technical training content, demos, and methodology documentation that help customers and internal teams use signoff tools correctly and confidently
• Replicate, debug, and escalate product issues, working across engineering, R&D, and account teams to resolve problems that affect customer schedules
• Mentor applications engineers and customer design teams on timing signoff best practices, corner case handling, and flow optimization
• Align technical enablement plans with account strategy, ensuring that the right customers get the right support at the right stage of their design cycle

The Impact You Will Have

• Enable customers to tape out complex, leading edge designs on schedule by solving signoff problems that would otherwise delay or derail their projects
• Influence the development roadmap for Synopsys signoff tools by surfacing real customer pain points and advocating for the features that matter most
• Accelerate adoption of new signoff capabilities across the customer base, turning beta features into production workflows that improve design quality and turnaround time
• Reduce escalations and support load by creating training materials and methodology guides that help customers solve problems independently
• Strengthen customer relationships and renewals by being the engineer they trust when the stakes are highest
• Raise the technical capability of the broader applications team through mentorship, knowledge sharing, and methodology leadership
• Shape how the semiconductor industry approaches timing signoff for the next generation of AI, 5G, automotive, and high-performance computing designs

What You'll Need

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field
• 10+ years of hands-on experience with timing analysis and signoff tools, flows, and methodologies in a customer-facing or product development role
• Deep working knowledge of PrimeTime, and direct experience with at least two of the following: PrimeShield, PrimeClosure, PrimePower
• Demonstrated ability to debug complex signoff issues under tapeout pressure and propose solutions that balance accuracy, runtime, and methodology constraints
• Strong understanding of static timing analysis fundamentals, including multi-mode multi-corner analysis, OCV, AOCV, path-based analysis, and signoff closure techniques
• Experience with adjacent tools like StarRC, RedHawk-SC, Spice, Hspice, or PrimeSim is a strong plus
• Proven ability to work effectively across global teams, including product engineering, account management, and customer design teams in different time zones

Who You Are

• You can walk into a customer war room during a tapeout crisis, assess the situation, and explain what needs to happen next in a way that calms the room instead of adding to the chaos
• You know when to escalate a problem to R&D and when to solve it with a methodology change, and you do not confuse the two
• You are comfortable saying "I don't know, but I will find out" and then actually finding out, usually faster than anyone expected
• You can present a technical concept to a room of senior engineers and make it clear without dumbing it down, and you can do the same thing in a slide deck or a two-sentence Slack message
• You care about making other engineers better, whether that is a junior AE learning signoff or a customer engineer trying to close timing on a hard block
• You treat customer schedules like they matter because you know they do, and you organize your work accordingly

The Team You'll Be Part Of

You will be part of the Silicon Design and Signoff Applications Engineering team, supporting customers who are building the most advanced chips in the world using Synopsys timing signoff tools. This is a global team that works closely with product development, sales, and customer design teams to deploy new capabilities, solve hard problems, and shape the future of signoff methodology. The work is technical, high stakes, and directly tied to whether customers can ship their products on time.

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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.