Principal Software Engineer, R&D (Principal Engineer)

Job Title

Principal Software Engineer, R&D (Principal Engineer)

Role Summary

Lead technical architecture and research across multiple simulation and solver projects within the R&D organization. Act as a technical authority, coordinate cross-team engineering efforts, and drive solutions that improve performance, scalability, and product quality.

Role may include line-management of a small technical team; primary responsibilities are individual-technical leadership and driving architecture and delivery across products. Remote-eligible but based in the Villeurbanne office.

Experience Level

Senior — experienced technical leader. The posting specifies senior-level experience tied to degree level (see Education Requirements); generally expects 8+ years for PhD holders and more for lower degrees.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include technical leadership, cross-team coordination, and ensuring production-quality software delivery.

• Lead planning, architecture, and research across multiple projects or disciplines.
• Coordinate product design and development activities, including user experience, software design, and solver research.
• Define and maintain engineering best practices through design reviews, mentoring, and technical guidance.
• Perform complex bug verification, release testing, and coordinate QA/support teams on cross-product issues.
• Research market and customer requirements; work with strategic customers to assess needs and develop solutions.
• Operate as a high-level team leader, project manager, or software architect with limited supervision.
• May provide line management for a small technical team while primarily contributing as an individual technical leader.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and demonstrated outcomes required for the role.

• Deep hands-on experience with software design and development methodologies in complex systems; ability to deliver production-quality code.
• Proven track record leading technical efforts that resulted in shipped features, new capabilities, or measurable improvements in large-scale software.
• Ability to operate as the technical authority across teams, align stakeholders, and drive solutions on ambiguous or multidisciplinary problems.
• Ability to translate business and customer requirements into technical roadmaps, architecture decisions, and actionable engineering plans.
• Proven mentorship experience and demonstrated ability to raise the technical level of engineers and teams.
• Nice-to-have: experience in numerical analysis, optimization algorithms, AI/machine learning, cloud-native architectures, or high-performance computing.

Education Requirements

BS in Engineering, Computer Science, or related field with 12 years of experience; MS with 10 years; or PhD with 8 years of software development experience for commercial products. Fields cited: Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical fields.

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.