Description
At Synopsys, you will work directly with the largest semiconductor companies in Korea on the most advanced nodes in production today. As a Senior Staff Engineer, Custom IC Layout, you will be responsible for owning Custom Compiler technical engagement at leading Korean foundry, memory, and fabless customers. Your primary focus will be on driving tool deployment, methodology adoption, and advanced-node enablement on their most critical custom layout projects.
You will lead on-site debug and root-cause analysis for blocker issues, working directly with customer layout teams and Synopsys R&D to deliver patches, workarounds, and hotfixes aligned to customer tapeout schedules. Additionally, you will develop and validate node-to-node and fab-to-fab analog IP migration methodologies, building production-ready flows that scale across multiple process nodes and customer design environments.
Your responsibilities will also include driving adoption of layout synthesis using ASO.ai and other Synopsys.ai solutions, integrating them into customer workflows and proving out ROI on real customer designs. You will build and deliver methodology decks, application notes, training materials, and customer-facing workshops that translate complex tool capabilities into actionable flows for layout engineers.
You will validate new Custom Compiler features on customer reference designs at advanced nodes, providing feedback to R&D on what works, what breaks, and what needs to change before general release. Finally, you will partner with field application teams and R&D to define product roadmap priorities based on direct customer engagement, ensuring that what we build next is what these customers actually need.
As a Senior Staff Engineer, Custom IC Layout, you will have a significant impact on the success of Synopsys' Custom Compiler product. You will enable leading Korean foundry, memory, and fabless customers to adopt Custom Compiler and layout synthesis on their most advanced nodes, directly accelerating their time to tapeout and reducing manual layout effort.
You will unblock critical customer tapeouts by resolving tool and methodology issues that would otherwise delay production schedules by weeks or months. You will build migration flows that allow customers to reuse analog IP across nodes and fabs, protecting millions of dollars in prior design investment and reducing redesign cycles.
You will shape the Custom Compiler product roadmap by feeding real customer requirements and pain points directly into R&D, ensuring that future releases solve the problems that matter most to our largest accounts. You will establish Synopsys as the trusted technical partner for custom layout at Korea's leading semiconductor companies, strengthening customer relationships and driving long-term tool adoption.
You will accelerate industry adoption of AI-driven layout synthesis by proving out ASO.ai on production designs, demonstrating measurable productivity gains that change how layout teams work. You will train and enable dozens of customer layout engineers through workshops and direct engagement, multiplying your impact across entire design organizations.
To succeed in this role, you will need to have a strong background in custom IC layout, with a minimum of 7 years of experience in the field. You should be proficient in Synopsys Custom Compiler or Cadence Virtuoso, including deep familiarity with layout editors, design rule checking, LVS flows, and parasitic extraction.
You should have a strong understanding of advanced-node design rules, physical verification flows, and parasitic-aware layout techniques for advanced-node. You should also have scripting capability in SKILL, Python, or Tcl, with comfort working in Linux/Unix environments to automate flows and debug tool issues.
Fluency in Korean and strong English communication skills are essential, as you will need to present technical content to customer executives and lead workshops for engineering teams. Experience with analog IP migration across process nodes or foundries, or hands-on work with layout synthesis tools, is a strong differentiator.
If you are a motivated and experienced engineer who is passionate about custom IC layout and AI-driven layout synthesis, we encourage you to apply for this exciting opportunity.