Principal Application Engineer- Emulation

Synopsys•Austin, TX

59d•$160,000 - $240,000•Onsite

About The Position

We are Synopsys, a 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 an experienced professional with deep knowledge of emulation platforms, understanding that the most challenging aspect is optimizing performance for practical application. You focus on workflows rather than just features, recognizing the critical difference between a setup that merely demos well and one that successfully closes verification for a complex SoC on schedule. You are adept at troubleshooting emulation issues in customer environments, identifying root causes, implementing fixes, and preventing recurrence. You are proactive in exploring platform functionalities and seeking information independently. Leadership comes naturally to you, earning trust through sound judgment. You effectively challenge suboptimal verification strategies and mentor colleagues without explicit direction. At Synopsys, you will collaborate with customers building cutting-edge chips, and your emulation strategies will be pivotal in their success and timely product launches.

Requirements

10+ years of hands-on experience with hardware emulation platforms such as Synopsys ZeBu, Mentor Veloce, or Cadence Palladium, including deployment, debug, and performance optimization
Deep proficiency in hardware description languages including Verilog, SystemVerilog, and VHDL, with the ability to read, debug, and optimize RTL for emulation
Strong understanding of verification methodologies including UVM, constrained random testing, and coverage-driven verification in the context of emulation environments
Solid grasp of SoC and ASIC architecture, including subsystem integration, interconnect protocols, memory hierarchies, and software/hardware co-verification flows
Experience with scripting languages such as Python, Perl, or TCL for automation, flow development, and data analysis in emulation and verification contexts
Proven ability to debug complex interactions across RTL, testbenches, emulation hardware, and embedded software, isolating issues that span multiple domains
Experience with customer-facing technical roles such as field applications engineering, customer support engineering, or technical consulting, with a track record of solving hard problems under pressure

Nice To Haves

You can walk into a war room where emulation is down and the tapeout is in six weeks, assess what is actually broken versus what people think is broken, and get the team focused on the right fix
You explain a complex emulation partitioning tradeoff to a verification lead in two sentences without losing the nuance, and you know when to go deeper and when to move on
You do not need to be the smartest person in the room, but you are the one people turn to when the problem is ambiguous, the pressure is high, and the path forward is not obvious
You push back when a customer asks for something that will not actually solve their problem, and you do it in a way that builds trust instead of burning it
You stay current on verification trends, emulation technology, and industry shifts not because someone told you to, but because you are genuinely curious about what is next and how it changes the game

Responsibilities

Lead technical engagements with customers deploying ZeBu or other emulation platforms, diagnosing performance bottlenecks, debug issues, and workflow inefficiencies that block verification progress
Design emulation strategies for complex SoC and ASIC projects, defining partitioning approaches, testbench integration, and bring-up sequences that actually work under real project constraints
Collaborate directly with Synopsys R&D teams to escalate product gaps, influence roadmap priorities, and validate new features against customer use cases before they ship
Develop and deliver technical training sessions, workshops, and best practice guides for customer engineering teams and internal application engineers
Troubleshoot critical emulation failures in live customer environments, working across hardware, RTL, testbench, and software layers to isolate root cause and restore productivity
Mentor junior applications engineers on emulation methodologies, debugging techniques, and customer engagement strategies, building the team's technical depth and customer impact