Senior OPC Applications Engineer

Location: Austin, Texas, United States

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 in the trenches of semiconductor manufacturing, where a single mask error can cost millions and a tapeout delay ripples through an entire production schedule. You know that OPC is not just software, it is the difference between a chip that works at 3nm and one that does not make it out of the fab. You have debugged enough runtime failures at 2 a.m. to know the questions to ask before the customer even finishes explaining the problem.

You are comfortable translating between a process engineer worried about edge placement error and an R&D team that needs a reproducible test case. You do not panic when a customer calls with a production blocker three hours before tapeout. Instead, you isolate the variable, coordinate across time zones, and find the path forward without creating collateral damage downstream.

You think in workflows, not features. When a customer says 'it is slow,' you know that could mean anything from HPC configuration to model complexity to job scheduling, and you have the instinct to triangulate fast. At Synopsys, you will work with semiconductor manufacturers pushing the edge of what is possible, and the solutions you deliver will directly affect whether their next-generation chips make it to market.

What You'll Be Doing

• Support semiconductor manufacturing customers using Proteus OPC and computational lithography tools, diagnosing software, workflow, model, and runtime issues that affect production tapeouts and process development
• Perform root cause analysis on customer-reported problems, coordinating resolution across R&D, Product Engineering, and customer teams in both US and Taiwan
• Deploy and qualify Proteus software releases at customer sites, supporting migration to new versions and advanced technology nodes while validating workflows in beta and production cycles
• Optimize OPC production environments by advising on runtime performance, HPC utilization, job scheduling, and scalability for high-volume manufacturing
• Build technical relationships with OPC, RET, and process integration teams at key customers, leading regular technical reviews and acting as their advocate inside Synopsys
• Capture enhancement requests and communicate customer requirements to Product Management and R&D, contributing to product validation and benchmark studies
• Create application notes, troubleshooting guides, and training materials, and mentor junior engineers on Proteus capabilities and best practices

The Impact You Will Have

• Reduce time to resolution for production-blocking issues, directly affecting customer tapeout schedules and fab yield
• Enable successful deployment of Proteus releases at advanced nodes (7nm, 5nm, 3nm and below), accelerating customer adoption of new features and technology
• Drive workflow improvements that increase OPC runtime efficiency and throughput, saving customers compute time and resources in high-volume manufacturing
• Strengthen strategic customer relationships through technical expertise and responsiveness, contributing to long-term business growth and customer retention
• Influence Proteus product roadmap by translating real-world manufacturing challenges into actionable R&D priorities
• Reduce repeat customer issues by identifying systemic problems and driving corrective actions across the product organization
• Expand customer technical capability through training and enablement, helping teams scale their use of computational lithography solutions

What You'll Need

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Computer Engineering, Materials Science, or related technical discipline
• 5+ years of hands-on experience in semiconductor manufacturing, computational lithography, OPC, RET, mask synthesis, or EDA applications support
• Direct experience supporting production semiconductor customers in a technical or applications engineering capacity
• Strong working knowledge of semiconductor process technology and lithography fundamentals, including how OPC affects manufacturing outcomes
• Proficiency in Linux environments and scripting languages such as Python, Perl, Tcl, or Shell for automation and troubleshooting
• Master's degree or PhD in a relevant engineering or physical sciences discipline is a plus
• Experience with Synopsys Proteus OPC solutions, or direct knowledge of optical proximity correction, resolution enhancement techniques, lithography simulation, or mask data preparation is a strong plus

Who You Are

• You can take a vague customer complaint like 'the results look wrong' and systematically narrow it to a specific model parameter, software version, or input deck issue within an hour
• You stay calm under pressure, whether that means a customer production issue at 10 p.m. or coordinating a fix across three time zones before a tapeout deadline
• You build trust with customer engineering teams by showing up prepared, following through on commitments, and knowing when to escalate versus when to solve it yourself
• You can explain a complex tradeoff between runtime and accuracy to a process integration manager in two sentences without losing the technical nuance
• You take ownership of problems end to end, even when the solution requires coordinating across R&D, IT, and customer teams who do not report to you
• You are curious enough to dig into unfamiliar codebases or workflows when a customer issue does not fit a known pattern

The Team You'll Be Part Of

You will work within the Proteus OPC Customer Support organization, collaborating closely with Product Engineering, R&D teams in the US and Taiwan, and Customer Success teams supporting semiconductor manufacturers in the Dallas region. Your role will involve direct engagement with customer OPC, RET, and process integration teams at leading fabs and IDMs, and you will serve as a technical bridge between customer manufacturing challenges and Synopsys product innovation.

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.