R&D Engineering Staff Engineer

Job Title

R&D Engineering Staff Engineer

Role Summary

Develop and improve computational lithography models for the Proteus product line, focusing on reducing calibration runtime and improving model robustness for advanced semiconductor manufacturing.

Work on a cross-functional R&D team within the EDA Group, translating mathematical models into production-quality C++ code, prototyping in Python, and collaborating with field engineers and customers to validate solutions against manufacturing data.

Experience Level

Senior - PhD in a relevant field with 1–2 years industry experience preferred, or MS with approximately 5 years of directly relevant industry experience. Significant experience in numerical methods, optimization, and production software development expected.

Responsibilities

Deliver modeling and optimization solutions for computational lithography and support their integration and validation in production workflows.

• Design and implement optimization techniques to reduce model calibration runtime while preserving accuracy.
• Prototype mathematical models in Python and translate validated designs into production-quality C++ integrated with the Proteus product line.
• Calibrate and tune complex non-linear model parameters using statistical analysis, numerical optimization, and domain heuristics.
• Analyze outlier data and develop sampling strategies to improve model robustness across process variations.
• Maintain and extend existing computational lithography models; diagnose performance bottlenecks and correctness issues in a large codebase.
• Collaborate with product engineering, field support, and customers to gather requirements, troubleshoot model behavior, and validate solutions on real manufacturing data.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and practical experience; preferred skills listed separately.

• Must-have: Strong programming skills in C++ for performance-critical numerical software and Python for prototyping and data analysis.
• Must-have: Deep experience with numerical computation, optimization methods, solving non-linear systems, parameter fitting, and convergence analysis.
• Must-have: Demonstrated ability to analyze complex datasets, identify patterns and outliers, and translate findings into model improvements.
• Must-have: Experience working on large, complex software projects with multiple contributors and long product lifecycles; emphasis on maintainable, high-quality code.
• Nice-to-have: Experience in computational lithography, optical modeling, or image processing.
• Nice-to-have: Prior work on production tools used in semiconductor manufacturing or direct customer-facing troubleshooting experience.

Education Requirements

PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or a related field strongly preferred (recent PhD graduates encouraged). Alternately, an MS in a related field with approximately 5 years of directly relevant industry experience is acceptable. Equivalent practical experience in computational modeling, optimization, or numerical methods may be considered.

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.