Senior Staff Application Engineer, FPGA

Job Title

Senior Staff Application Engineer, FPGA

Role Summary

Lead pre-sales technical engagements for Synopsys hardware-assisted verification platforms, focusing on FPGA prototyping and emulation for complex SoC, GPU, and AI designs. Work with sales and customers to define evaluation plans, run proofs-of-concept, demonstrate performance and debug workflows, and guide deployment and integration at customer sites.

Experience Level

Senior - typically 10–12 years of relevant industry experience in emulation, FPGA prototyping, ASIC design, or SoC validation.

Responsibilities

Provide technical leadership during customer evaluations and throughout the sales cycle; demonstrate solutions that address real customer validation challenges.

• Lead technical pre-sales engagements for FPGA prototyping and emulation platforms (ZeBu, ZS5, HAPS, ProtoCompiler).
• Assess customer designs and validation challenges; propose partitioning, performance, and debug strategies tailored to their flow.
• Plan and execute technical evaluations, benchmarks, and proof-of-concept projects that demonstrate measurable value.
• Deploy and configure hardware-assisted verification platforms at customer sites and integrate them with RTL and simulation flows.
• Deliver technical presentations, architecture reviews, and demonstrations to engineering and executive stakeholders.
• Collaborate with sales to qualify opportunities, set technical milestones, and address technical objections with data-driven analysis.
• Capture customer feedback to inform product roadmap and reduce post-sale issues.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and professional behaviors required to perform the role effectively; nice-to-have items listed separately.

• Must-have: Hands-on experience in emulation, FPGA-based prototyping, ASIC design, or SoC validation with deep familiarity of RTL-to-hardware workflows and hardware bring-up.
• Must-have: Strong command of FPGA architectures (e.g., Xilinx, Intel), RTL design in Verilog or VHDL, synthesis flows, and hardware debug under project constraints.
• Must-have: Proven ability to run technical evaluations, construct benchmarks, and produce proof-of-concept artifacts that influence customer decisions.
• Must-have: Comfortable traveling to customer sites on short notice to support evaluations and technical engagements.
• Must-have: Excellent customer-facing communication and presentation skills; ability to translate technical tradeoffs into business value.
• Nice-to-have: Direct experience with ZeBu, HAPS, ProtoCompiler, or similar FPGA prototyping and emulation toolchains.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.

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.