R&D Senior Staff Engineer

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 building and verifying SoC designs that actually have to ship, and you know the difference between a transactor that works in a lab and one that holds up under real customer workloads. Emulation is not just a checkbox for you, it is the proving ground where you catch the issues that would cost months if they slipped to silicon. You have debugged enough AMBA AXI and CHI traffic to know when something smells wrong three layers deep in a trace, and you can explain what you found to both the RTL designer who wrote it and the customer engineer who has to live with it.

You think in systems. Cache controllers, memory interfaces, interconnects, you understand how they fit together and where the performance bottlenecks hide. Building a transactor in SystemVerilog or C++ is second nature, but what sets you apart is knowing which abstraction level to choose and when to push back on a requirement that will not scale.

Working with global teams and customers does not faze you. You have run technical calls across time zones, explained complex verification strategies in English to stakeholders who needed clarity fast, and delivered solutions that actually got deployed. At Synopsys, you will work on ZeBu emulation platforms that verify the SoCs powering mobile, automotive, and AI systems worldwide.

What You'll Be Doing

• Develop and deploy SoC performance verification solutions on the ZeBu emulator, including transactor models, protocol checkers, and CI/CD automation frameworks
• Build emulation-based transactors for standard protocols like AMBA AXI and CHI, as well as custom SoC-specific protocols, using SystemVerilog and C++
• Debug and optimize performance verification environments for mobile AP designs, working across cache controllers, LPDDR memory controllers, and system interconnects
• Provide direct technical support to customers deploying ZeBu for SoC performance validation, troubleshooting emulation setup, transactor integration, and performance bottlenecks
• Collaborate with Synopsys headquarters and regional teams to define verification IP roadmaps, contribute to product enhancements, and align solutions with customer needs
• Lead technical discussions and design reviews with customers and internal teams, communicating complex verification trade-offs clearly and driving decisions
• Maintain and improve existing verification components, ensuring they scale with evolving SoC architectures and industry protocol standards

The Impact You Will Have

• Enable customers to catch critical performance and functional issues in their SoC designs before tapeout, saving months of silicon respins and time-to-market delays
• Expand the capabilities of ZeBu emulation platforms by delivering transactors and solutions that support the latest AMBA specifications and custom customer protocols
• Strengthen Synopsys' position in the Korea market by providing world-class technical support that turns complex customer challenges into successful deployments
• Drive adoption of best-in-class SoC performance verification methodologies that improve efficiency and coverage across mobile, automotive, and AI design teams
• Contribute directly to product development by feeding real customer use cases and pain points back into the ZeBu roadmap and verification IP strategy
• Build long-term customer relationships grounded in technical credibility, becoming the engineer customers call when they hit a wall on a critical project
• Mentor and elevate the broader verification team by sharing expertise in emulation, protocol verification, and customer engagement

What You'll Need

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field with 10+ years of hands-on experience in RTL design and RTL design verification
• Deep understanding of SoC architecture, including mobile AP designs with cache controllers, AMBA system buses (AXI, CHI), and LPDDR memory controllers
• Proven experience developing emulation-based transactor models and verification solutions using SystemVerilog and C++
• Business-level English communication skills with the ability to lead technical meetings, write clear documentation, and collaborate effectively with Synopsys headquarters and global teams
• Hands-on experience with ZeBu emulation platforms or similar hardware emulation/prototyping environments is a strong plus
• Familiarity with UNIX/Linux environments and scripting languages (Python, Perl, or shell scripting) for automation and workflow development
• Track record of working directly with customers in a technical support, field applications, or solutions engineering capacity is highly valued

Who You Are

• You can walk into a customer meeting with a failing emulation run, ask three targeted questions, and narrow the problem space before anyone has finished their coffee
• You do not wait for perfect specs. When a protocol definition is ambiguous or a customer requirement is half-baked, you clarify what matters, document assumptions, and move forward
• You know how to balance technical depth with pragmatism. You will spend a day optimizing a transactor for performance if it matters, and you will also ship a good-enough solution when the schedule demands it
• You are comfortable being the technical bridge between product engineering in the US and customer design teams in Korea, translating context in both directions without losing the thread
• You take ownership. If a customer deployment is struggling, you do not point to documentation, you get on a call, reproduce the issue, and work it through to resolution
• You stay current. You read the latest AMBA specs, you know what is changing in mobile SoC architectures, and you bring that knowledge into the solutions you build

The Team You'll Be Part Of

You will join the Korea-based ZeBu Performance Verification team, a technical group that sits at the intersection of product development and customer success. The team works closely with Korea's leading semiconductor companies, many of whom are designing the mobile APs and AI accelerators that power devices worldwide. You will collaborate daily with local field application engineers and customer design teams, while staying connected to Synopsys R&D and product teams in the US and other regions. This is a team that values deep technical expertise and customer impact equally. You will have the autonomy to architect solutions for complex customer problems, the support of a global emulation engineering organization, and direct influence on both what gets built and how it gets deployed in one of the most demanding SoC markets in the world.

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.

#TPG

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.