Sr Staff Application Engineer- FPGA

Synopsys, Inc.; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Synopsys, Inc. is seeking an experienced hardware-assisted verification specialist in Sunnyvale, CA. You will lead pre-sales engagements for ZeBu-200, ZS5 Emulation, and HAPS FPGA prototyping, tailoring solutions to SoC, GPU, and AI validation challenges.

You will conduct technical evaluations, run POCs and benchmarks, and guide customers through setup and workflow integration while collaborating with the sales team to advance opportunities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s in Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• 10–12 years of hands-on experience in emulation, FPGA-based prototyping, ASIC design, or SoC validation.

Responsibilities

• Lead pre-sales technical engagements for ZeBu-200, ZS5 Emulation, and HAPS FPGA prototyping.
• Present tailored hardware-assisted verification solutions for partitioning, performance, debug, and RTL/simulation integration.
• Conduct evaluations, proof-of-concept projects, and benchmarks to demonstrate real customer value.
• Deploy AI-based hardware-assisted verification platforms at customer sites with setup and workflow integration.
• Collaborate with sales to shape opportunity strategy and move deals through the pipeline with clear milestones.
• Deliver product demonstrations, technical presentations, and architecture reviews to engineering and executive stakeholders.
• Build trusted advisor relationships with customer architects and engineering leaders for long-term partnerships.

Skills

FPGA architectures

Verilog/VHDL

RTL-to-hardware workflows

Problem solving

Pre-sales engagements

Education

Bachelors/Masters in Electronics or Computer Engineering

Tools

ZeBu

HAPS platforms

ProtoCompiler

Job description

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 in the trenches of hardware verification, close enough to the metal to know where FPGA prototypes break down and where emulation saves months of schedule slip. When you walk into a customer meeting with a sales team, you listen first. You map their design challenges, their timeline pressure, their past tool frustrations, and you shape your technical approach around what will actually move them forward. You have debugged enough bring-ups to know where customers get stuck: partitioning that does not scale, clock domain issues that surface late, debug flows that eat weeks. That knowledge makes you dangerous in a good way. You use it to de-risk their evaluation and accelerate their decision. You are not there to pitch features. You are there to solve a problem they have been losing sleep over, and you know how to prove it with real data, real benchmarks, and a proof-of-concept that lands. At Synopsys, you will work with ZeBu, HAPS, and ProtoCompiler platforms that define the category, and you will help customers see how AI is changing the game for hardware-assisted verification.

What You'll Be Doing

• Lead pre-sales technical engagements for ZeBu-200, ZS5 Emulation, and HAPS FPGA prototyping platforms, working directly with prospective customers to understand their SoC, GPU, and AI design validation challenges
• Present tailored hardware-assisted verification solutions that address customer-specific needs around partitioning, performance, debug, and integration with their existing RTL and simulation flows
• Conduct technical evaluations, proof-of-concept projects, and benchmarks that demonstrate how our platforms solve the customer's real problems, not just theoretical capabilities
• Deploy AI-based hardware-assisted verification platforms at customer sites, guiding them through setup, configuration, and workflow integration
• Collaborate closely with the sales team to shape opportunity strategy, qualify technical fit, handle objections, and move deals through the pipeline with clear technical milestones
• Deliver compelling product demonstrations, technical presentations, and architecture reviews to engineering teams and executive stakeholders, tailoring depth and focus to the audience
• Build and maintain trusted advisor relationships with customer architects and engineering leaders that extend beyond individual sales cycles and create long-term partnership opportunities

The Impact You Will Have

• Your technical credibility and solution design will directly win competitive deals, growing ZeBu, ZS5, and HAPS revenue and expanding Synopsys footprint in strategic accounts
• Proof-of-concept work you lead will de-risk customer decisions and shorten sales cycles by proving value early and clearly, turning skeptics into champions
• Solutions you architect will set customers up for long-term success, reducing post-sale friction and creating expansion opportunities as their designs scale
• Customer insights you bring back will shape product roadmap priorities and help R&D build features that win in the field, not just in the lab
• Relationships you establish with key technical buyers will open doors for the sales team and create multi-year partnership opportunities that compound over time
• Technical content and competitive positioning you develop will strengthen the entire field team's ability to sell hardware-assisted verification effectively across regions
• Your ability to translate complex prototyping challenges into clear business value will elevate how customers perceive Synopsys technical leadership and differentiation in the market

What You'll Need

• Bachelor's or Master's in Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field
• 10-12 years of hands-on experience in emulation, FPGA-based prototyping, ASIC design, or SoC validation, with deep understanding of RTL-to-hardware workflows and the design challenges that come with them
• Strong command of FPGA architectures such as Xilinx or Intel, RTL design in Verilog or VHDL, synthesis flows, and hardware bring-up and debug under real project constraints
• Comfort with travel to customer sites for evaluations, presentations, and technical engagements, sometimes on short notice to support active opportunities
• Experience with ZeBu, HAPS platforms, ProtoCompiler, or similar FPGA prototyping and emulation tools is highly desirable and will accelerate your impact

Who You Are

• You can walk into a first meeting with a prospective customer, ask three good questions, and leave with a clear picture of what they need to see in order to move forward
• When a customer raises a technical objection or competitive comparison, you address it directly with specifics: real data, real tradeoffs, no deflection or vague promises
• You work seamlessly with sales. You understand their goals, you communicate pipeline status clearly, and you help them shape deals without waiting to be asked
• You present technical content in a way that lands with different audiences, whether you are walking an engineer through a partitioning flow or explaining prototype ROI to a program manager
• You stay organized across multiple active opportunities, managing evaluations, follow-ups, and deliverables without letting anything fall through the cracks
• You care about winning, but you care just as much about winning the right way, setting up customers for success so they come back and expand