Applications Engineering, Staff Engineer - 19324

Job Description and Requirements

Alternate Job Titles

• Staff Applications Engineer, Yield & Diagnosis
• Staff Solutions Engineer, Silicon Debug & Yield
• Staff Field Applications Engineer, DFT & Diagnosis
• Staff Customer Engineer, Post-Silicon Debug
• Staff Applications Engineer, Test & Yield Analysis

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 years deep in the trenches of silicon debug, where a single scan chain failure can cost millions and a good diagnosis report can save a product launch. You know that yield is not an abstract metric, it is the difference between a chip that ships and one that does not, and you have learned to read failure patterns the way others read code. You do not just run tools, you interpret what they are telling you, connect the dots between a defect pareto and a process issue, and translate that into something a product engineer or fab team can actually act on.

You are comfortable sitting with a customer's validation team at 2 AM debugging an MBIST failure on a production tapeout, and equally comfortable presenting root-cause findings to their VP of Engineering the next afternoon. You think in workflows, not features. You know the difference between a diagnosis that points in the right direction and one that closes the loop, and you care about that difference because you have seen what happens when it is wrong.

At Synopsys, you will work with customers who are building the chips that power everything, and the diagnosis work you do will directly determine whether those chips make it to market.

What You'll Be Doing

• Drive customer engagements on scan diagnosis, chain diagnosis, and Memory BIST failure analysis using Synopsys Yield Explorer and related diagnosis workflows
• Support post-silicon debug activities for high-volume manufacturing customers, performing root-cause analysis on scan, chain, and embedded memory failures
• Interpret diagnosis reports, build defect pareto analysis, and deliver actionable recommendations that drive yield improvement and time-to-market
• Manage technical escalations from customer DFT, product engineering, and yield teams, driving issues to closure across Synopsys R&D, support, and field organizations
• Collaborate cross-functionally with internal DFT architects, ATPG developers, and product engineering teams to refine diagnosis methodologies and improve customer outcomes
• Build and deliver volume diagnosis workflows that scale across wafer-level test data, enabling systematic yield learning for customers ramping complex SoCs
• Present technical findings and yield improvement strategies to customer stakeholders ranging from bench engineers to executive leadership

The Impact You Will Have

• Your diagnosis work will directly determine whether a customer's chip moves from debug to production, often saving months of schedule and millions in re-spins
• The yield learning methodologies you deploy will enable systematic defect reduction across high-volume manufacturing lines, improving profitability and time-to-market for tier-1 semiconductor companies
• Your ability to translate complex diagnosis data into clear action will help customers make better decisions about design-for-test architecture, process changes, and test coverage
• The escalations you resolve will strengthen customer trust in Synopsys tooling and position the company as a true partner in their silicon success
• The workflows and best practices you establish will be reused across multiple customer engagements, scaling your impact beyond individual projects
• Your collaboration with R&D will shape the next generation of diagnosis capabilities in Yield Explorer and related Synopsys DFT products
• The technical relationships you build will open doors for deeper engagements across DFT, test, and yield engineering at strategic accounts

What You'll Need

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics, VLSI, or related field
• 6+ years of hands-on experience in semiconductor diagnosis, DFT, yield engineering, product engineering, or silicon validation
• Deep expertise in scan diagnosis, chain diagnosis, and failure localization methodologies
• Strong working knowledge of volume diagnosis for scan and Memory BIST, including defect pareto analysis and yield learning workflows
• Hands-on experience with Synopsys Yield Explorer and diagnosis tool workflows
• Solid understanding of DFT fundamentals including ATPG, scan compression, scan architecture, and Memory BIST
• Experience debugging SRAM and embedded memory failures in post-silicon or high-volume manufacturing contexts is a strong plus

Who You Are

• You can walk into a room full of stressed product engineers staring at a failing wafer lot and within an hour have a plan that everyone believes in
• You do not need a perfect dataset to start diagnosing, you work with what you have, ask the right questions, and know when to escalate versus when to dig deeper yourself
• You can explain a complex scan diagnosis result to a customer's executive team in two minutes without losing the technical nuance that matters
• You are organized enough to manage three live customer escalations, two yield studies, and an internal R&D collaboration without dropping threads
• You push back when a customer request does not make technical sense, and you do it in a way that builds trust rather than friction
• You treat every engagement like it matters because you know that your diagnosis work is often the last line of defense before a chip is scrapped or a product is delayed

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.

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.