Applications Engineering Executive Director

Job Title

Applications Engineering Executive Director

Role Summary

Lead and scale the applications engineering organization for Synopsys Hardware-assisted Verification products (emulation, FPGA prototyping, simulation acceleration). Own technical customer relationships, ensure successful deployments and adoption, and partner with sales, product management, and R&D to translate field feedback into product and roadmap priorities.

Experience Level

Senior-level. The role requires extensive senior leadership and technical customer-facing experience (see Requirements).

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities focus on customer success, technical leadership, and building a repeatable, high-performing applications organization.

• Lead and scale a geographically distributed applications engineering team supporting hardware-assisted verification products.
• Own technical relationships with strategic customers to ensure deployment, adoption, and expansion of verification solutions.
• Drive technical win strategies and participate directly in complex customer evaluations and escalations.
• Partner with sales, product management, and R&D to translate customer requirements into roadmap priorities and engineering improvements.
• Establish best practices for customer engagement, escalation management, and knowledge sharing.
• Build hiring, onboarding, and development programs to grow technical depth and customer-facing skills.
• Represent the voice of the customer internally to influence product decisions and improve usability and deployability.

Requirements

Must-have technical and leadership qualifications for immediate effectiveness in the role.

• 15+ years in applications engineering, field engineering, or technical customer-facing roles in EDA, semiconductor IP, or hardware verification.
• Proven experience leading and scaling technical teams of 10+ engineers in a customer-facing capacity.
• Hands-on experience with hardware-assisted verification technologies such as emulation, FPGA prototyping, or simulation acceleration.
• Direct experience with SoC verification challenges and deployment workflows at semiconductor or systems companies.
• Strong technical foundation in digital design, verification methodologies, and EDA tool flows.
• Ability to influence product strategy and engineering priorities based on customer and market feedback.

Nice-to-have:

• Experience hiring, developing, and retaining senior technical talent in a competitive market.

Education Requirements

Not specified.

About the Company

Company: Synopsys

Headquarters: Mountain View, California, USA

Synopsys is a leading company in electronic design automation (EDA) and semiconductor IP solutions. It provides tools and services for designing and verifying complex semiconductor devices and systems. The company plays a pivotal role in the semiconductor industry, helping engineers innovate and deliver higher-quality products faster. Synopsys is committed to advancing technology standards and offers a range of software and hardware solutions to its clients globally.