Senior Engineer, PathFinder-SC (R&D Engineering)

Job Title

Senior Engineer, PathFinder-SC (R&D Engineering)

Role Summary

Develop and optimize PathFinder-SC, a high-performance physical design tool, by writing production-quality C++ that scales to large semiconductor designs. Work on the Chengdu PathFinder-SC team and collaborate with global engineering sites to deliver features, fixes, and performance improvements that affect tapeout schedules and designer productivity.

Experience Level

Senior-level. Typical background: multiple years of professional software development (generally 5+ years).

Responsibilities

Own mid-sized features and improvements in a large C++ codebase, diagnose and fix production issues, and ensure tools perform at scale.

• Design, implement, and maintain PathFinder-SC features with a focus on performance, scalability, and maintainability.
• Independently deliver mid-sized projects after requirements are defined with manager/tech lead.
• Diagnose and fix complex bugs, including memory issues, race conditions, and performance bottlenecks.
• Optimize runtime and memory usage for large-scale semiconductor designs.
• Write unit, regression, and system-level tests to validate changes before release.
• Communicate technical decisions clearly to peers and serve as a technical reference on the project team.
• Contribute improvements to distributed processing to scale the tools for larger designs.

Requirements

Practical, production experience and technical skills required; listed "nice-to-have" items indicate strong preference but are not mandatory.

• Must-have: Strong C++ programming skills (object-oriented design, STL, memory management, modern C++ features).
• Must-have: Solid foundation in data structures, algorithms, debugging techniques, and experience diagnosing issues in production code.
• Must-have: Track record of delivering high-quality software on time in a professional development environment.
• Must-have: Ability to learn complex systems quickly and collaborate with others to deliver solutions.
• Nice-to-have: Experience with large-scale commercial software development.
• Nice-to-have: Experience developing physical design or analysis tools for semiconductor workflows.
• Nice-to-have: Experience developing, debugging, or optimizing distributed processing systems.
• Nice-to-have: Proficiency in Python in addition to C++.
• Soft skills: Ability to read and extend others' code, reproduce and isolate production bugs, explain tradeoffs with data, and document work for a global team.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field with 5 years of software development experience, or Master's degree with 3 years of experience.

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.