R&D Engineering, Principal Engineer (f/m)
SynopsysJobsCloseBy Editorial Insights
Synopsys is seeking a R&D Engineering, Principal Engineer (f/m) in Villeurbanne, France, onsite with remote eligibility. You will be the technical authority guiding architecture and research across multiple projects in simulation tools for silicon design, driving performance, scalability, and reliability. The role requires 12+ years of production software experience, a proven track record shipping features, and the ability to mentor engineers and align cross-functional teams across geographies. Strong pluses include numerical analysis, optimization, AI/ML, cloud-native or HPC. To apply, tailor your resume to show leadership, design documentation, customer impact, and concrete shipped outcomes.
General Information
Descriptions & Requirements
We Are
Synopsys is the leader in engineering solutions from silicon to systems, enabling customers to rapidly innovate AI-powered products. We deliver industry-leading silicon design, IP, simulation and analysis solutions, and design services. We partner closely with our customers across a wide range of industries to maximize their R&D capability and productivity, powering innovation today that ignites the ingenuity of tomorrow.
You Are
You have spent over a decade building software that powers the semiconductor industry, and you know the difference between a solver that works in a demo and one that holds up under production load with millions of transistors and real customer deadlines. Architecture decisions you made years ago are still running in products today, and you have learned to think three releases ahead without losing sight of what needs to ship next quarter.
You are comfortable being the technical authority in the room, whether that room is full of kernel developers, application engineers trying to unblock a customer, or product managers debating roadmap tradeoffs. You do not need a perfect spec to get started. You ask the right questions, align stakeholders across geographies, and build consensus around a technical direction that actually works.
Mentorship matters to you. You have seen engineers grow under your guidance, and you know that the best way to scale your impact is to make the people around you better. At Synopsys, you will work on simulation tools that define how chips get designed, and the technical decisions you make will ripple across the industry.
What You'll Be Doing
- Leads the planning, architecture or research across multiple projects or disciplines
- Coordinates product design and development activities requiring extensive analysis in areas such as user experience, software design and solver research. Acts as a technical reference across groups or products
- Defines, develops, and employs best practices and maintains them through technical reviews and mentoring
- Performs highly complex bug verification, release testing, and beta support across multiple products. Coordinates the QA or product support teams on problems discovered and develops solutions
- Researches and understands the marketing requirements for products, including target environment, performance criteria and competitive issues. Works with strategic customers or proxies to assess needs and develop solutions
- Operates without direct supervision and functions as a high-level team leader, project manager, or software architect
- May be responsible for line management of a small technical team but primary duties are of an individual technical nature
The Impact You Will Have
- Your architectural decisions will shape the performance, scalability, and reliability of simulation software used by companies worldwide
- The frameworks and methods you define will become the foundation for how multiple engineering teams build, test, and ship software
- Engineers you mentor will carry forward the technical rigor and problem-solving approach you model, multiplying your impact across the organization
- Customer problems that have been blocking critical designs will get solved because you bridged the gap between what they need and what the product can deliver
- Release quality will improve because you caught the hard problems early, coordinated across teams, and drove solutions that hold up under real-world conditions
- The technical roadmaps you build will align business strategy with engineering reality, ensuring the right capabilities ship at the right time
What You'll Need
- BS in Engineering, Computer Science, or related field with 12 years of experience, MS with 10 years, or PhD with 8 years in software development for commercial products
- Deep hands-on experience with software design, development methodologies, and delivering production-quality code in complex systems
- Proven track record leading technical efforts that resulted in shipped features, new capabilities, or measurable improvements in large-scale software products
- Demonstrated ability to operate as a technical authority across teams, driving alignment and execution on ambiguous or multi-disciplinary problems
- Experience in one or more of the following areas is a strong plus: numerical analysis, optimization algorithms, AI or machine learning, cloud-native architectures, or high-performance computing
- Ability to translate business and customer requirements into technical roadmaps, architecture decisions, and actionable engineering plans
- Track record of mentoring engineers and raising the technical bar within a team or organization
Who You Are
- You can walk into a room where a critical customer issue is being debated and within 20 minutes identify the root cause, propose two viable solutions, and get everyone aligned on next steps
- You write design documents that engineers actually read because they are clear, opinionated, and grounded in tradeoffs that matter
- When a junior engineer brings you a gnarly bug, you do not just fix it, you use it as a teaching moment and leave them better equipped to solve the next one
- You push back when a roadmap does not make technical sense, and you do it in a way that builds trust rather than friction
- You are comfortable presenting technical work to a VP, a customer architect, or a room full of PhD researchers, and you adjust your message without losing the substance
- You have learned that the best technical leaders are the ones who make everyone around them more effective, not the ones who hoard the hardest problems
The Team You'll Be Part Of
Your recruiter will share more about the team structure and mission during the interview process.
Rewards and Benefits
We offer a comprehensive range of health, wellness, and financial benefits to cater to your needs. Our total rewards include both monetary and non-monetary offerings. Your recruiter will provide more details about the salary range and benefits during the hiring process.
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At Synopsys, we want talented people of every background to feel valued and supported to do their best work. Synopsys considers all applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, military veteran status, or disability.