Applications Engineering, Director-Physical Design
Originally posted 2 August 2026 by the employer — open 47 days.
About the role
This role involves leading a team of applications engineers to deploy digital design methodologies including synthesis, place-and-route, timing closure, and power optimization for advanced node designs.
What you'll do
- Lead customer engagements to deploy digital design methodologies including synthesis, place-and-route, timing closure, and power optimization for advanced node designs.
- Solve complex technical challenges alongside customer engineering teams, diagnosing bottlenecks in their flows and tuning tool configurations to hit PPA targets.
- Deliver technical training and hands-on guidance to customer teams on tool usage, methodology best practices, and advanced implementation techniques.
- Manage and mentor a team of applications engineers, balancing project delivery, technical growth, and customer relationship ownership across multiple engagements.
- Own customer escalations, driving debug and resolution plans in partnership with R&D, Product, and Program teams.
- Serve as the voice of the customer to Synopsys R&D teams, translating field issues and feature requests into actionable product feedback.
What you'll need
- 16+ years of hands-on experience in digital design implementation, including synthesis, place-and-route, timing closure, and power optimization on advanced process nodes.
- Deep working knowledge of Synopsys digital design tools or equivalent EDA platforms, with the ability to debug flows, tune configurations, and teach methodologies.
- Proven experience leading technical teams, including hiring, mentoring, performance management, and resource allocation across multiple customer engagements.
- Track record of managing customer escalations and driving resolution through cross-functional collaboration with R&D, Product, and Support organizations.
- Strong technical judgment to prioritize competing demands, allocate resources effectively, and make tradeoff decisions under pressure.
- Willingness to travel occasionally to support strategic customer engagements, executive reviews, and critical project milestones.
Nice to have
- Experience with AI/ML tooling or methodologies in the context of EDA workflows is a plus.
Skills: digital design methodologies, synthesis, place-and-route, timing closure, power optimization
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 86-day median for EDA/CAD Engineering roles.
EDA/CAD Engineering · EDA Tools
|
Open roles in category
680
|
Median days open
86 d
|
Median salary
$197k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Synopsys | All employers we track in this specialty (680 roles · 73 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 55 | 680 |
| Open roles in the wider Physical Implementation family | 87 | 1379 · 105 employers |
| Median days open | 57 d | 86 d (−29 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $197k |
Skills observed across this category: digital design methodologies, synthesis, place-and-route, timing closure, power optimization
Who's hiring in this category
- Cadence Design Systems · 173 open roles · median 141 d
- Synopsys (this employer) · 52 open roles · median 58 d
- NVIDIA · 50 open roles · median 90 d
- Micron Technology · 36 open roles · median 119 d
- Qualcomm · 36 open roles · median 72 d
- Intel Corporation · 29 open roles · median 23 d
How we counted: 680 open EDA/CAD Engineering (EDA Tools) roles from 73 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 18 Sept 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Physical Implementation family row. Figures refresh nightly.