Sr Principal Product Engineer

Job Title

Sr Principal Product Engineer

Role Summary

Lead product engineering role focused on Static Timing Analysis (STA) signoff solutions, with an emphasis on the Tempus timing signoff product. The role bridges customers and R&D to convert customer requirements into detailed product specifications, drive feature development, and ensure successful tool deployment and adoption.

This position involves hands-on technical work, customer engagement, specification writing, and cross-team execution to improve tool quality and deployment success.

Experience Level

Senior-level. Specific years of experience not stated.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include product specification, customer engagement, and driving STA tool improvements and deployments.

• Provide hands-on expertise in Static Timing Analysis (STA) and advanced signoff methodologies (timing, SI, OCV/POCV, AOCV, MPW, derates, CDC/clocking, hierarchical closure, constraint modeling).
• Work with Tempus (and familiarity with other STA tools) and industry-standard signoff flows to diagnose and resolve timing issues.
• Act as technical liaison between customers and R&D; gather customer pain points, use cases, and requirements.
• Create detailed, implementable product specifications from customer requirements.
• Collaborate with R&D to prioritize and drive feature development, enhancements, and bug fixes.
• Support tool deployment, evaluations, benchmarking, flow recommendations, and best-practice guidance for signoff success.
• Engage customers to expand product adoption and enable successful signoff deployments.
• Participate in technical discussions, reviews, and escalations, providing data-backed guidance and resolution.
• Identify gaps, propose enhancements, and validate solutions using real customer designs.

Requirements

Must-have technical and customer-facing skills required for the role; personal traits that support success are listed separately.

• Must-have: Deep understanding of STA fundamentals and advanced signoff concepts.
• Must-have: Hands-on experience with Tempus and/or PrimeTime.
• Must-have: Expertise with timing constraints (SDC), clocking architectures, and path-based analysis.
• Must-have: Working knowledge of VLSI design flows from front-end to signoff.
• Must-have: Scripting skills for automation and flow optimization (Tcl, Python preferred).
• Must-have: Strong customer interaction, communication, and requirement-gathering skills; experience writing specifications and driving cross-team execution.
• Nice-to-have: Experience supporting large-scale tool adoption and deployment across diverse customer environments.

Education Requirements

Not specified.

About the Company

Company: Cadence Design Systems

Headquarters: San Jose, California, USA

Cadence Design Systems is a global electronic design automation company that provides software, hardware, and intellectual property for designing advanced semiconductor chips. With over 25 years in the industry, Cadence is known for its innovative technology solutions and has been recognized by Fortune Magazine as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. The company is dedicated to solving complex technical challenges in order to enable customers to create revolutionary products and experiences.