Staff Engineer, SerDes PHY Firmware

Job Title

Staff Engineer, SerDes PHY Firmware

Role Summary

Hands-on senior individual-contributor role on the SerDes PHY IP firmware team, focused on firmware design, silicon bring-up, and customer issue resolution for multi-protocol PHY IP (PCIe, Ethernet, MIPI M-PHY).

Work closely with analog, digital, verification, systems, and lab teams to develop firmware for PHY startup, calibration, adaptation, and integration.

Experience Level

Senior - typically 8+ years of relevant industry experience.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include firmware development, debugging, and integration across firmware and silicon.

• Develop firmware for SerDes PHY IP supporting PCIe, Ethernet, MIPI M-PHY, and similar protocols.
• Design and maintain firmware for PHY startup, offset calibration, and adaptation flows.
• Analyze and debug interactions between firmware, analog/mixed-signal front-end, and digital PCS/PMA blocks.
• Lead firmware integration, silicon bring-up, characterization, and post-silicon debugging activities.
• Collaborate with systems, analog/digital design, verification, and lab teams during development and debugging.
• Maintain firmware development infrastructure, tools, and documentation for customer support.
• Investigate and resolve customer-reported firmware issues and failures.
• Contribute to improvements in firmware design methodology and system-level architecture.

Requirements

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

• 8+ years of industry experience in firmware, embedded software, or related fields.
• Strong background in firmware/software development and solid understanding of digital logic.
• Hands-on experience with assembly-level firmware for embedded controllers or custom PHY sequencer ISAs.
• Working knowledge of high-speed SerDes fundamentals and at least one SerDes standard (PCIe, Ethernet, MIPI M-PHY, USB, DisplayPort).
• Experience with structured firmware development, verification, and documentation processes.
• Familiarity with embedded toolchains: cross-compilers, assemblers, and on-target debuggers.
• Ability to read and debug Verilog RTL (e.g., PHY FSM/sequencer RTL) to reason about firmware/hardware interactions.
• Business-level English communication skills for collaboration with global teams and customers.

Nice-to-have:

• Deep expertise in PCIe, Ethernet, or MIPI M-PHY protocol layers and multi-protocol SerDes architectures.
• RTL design or verification experience.
• Scripting with Perl, Python, Bash, or Csh; experience with Perforce or Git workflows.
• Silicon bring-up and lab debugging experience with waveform tools, oscilloscopes, or BER testers.
• Experience developing DSP microcode or firmware for custom-ISA processors; familiarity with AI-assisted development tools.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field - or equivalent industry 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.