ASIC Digital Design, Principal Engineer

Note:

This position is posted for Markham, but it is open to candidates across Canada, including Mississauga, Nepean, and Ottawa. The role can be hybrid or fully remote depending on your location and preference.
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 a decade or more designing digital logic that has to work at the edge of what silicon can do. High-speed Ser Des, clock domain crossings that could sink a tapeout, power budgets measured in milliwatts because every one counts. You know that the hardest part of mixed-signal ASIC design is not the RTL, it is the boundary between digital and analog, where timing meets noise and specifications meet reality.

You have debugged gate-level sims at 2 a.m. and found the one async crossing that everyone else missed.

You think in terms of design intent, not just passing checks. When you write Verilog, you are already thinking about what synthesis will do to it, what DFT will need, and how verification will cover it. You do not hand off a block and hope for the best. You sit with the verification team, you walk through the testplan, and you help debug the failures that matter.

Mentorship is not a checkbox for you. You have brought junior engineers along, shown them how to think through a problem instead of just fixing their code. At Synopsys, you will architect digital logic for next-generation Ethernet, PCIe, SATA, and USB PHYs that ship in products around the world. The team is expert-level, the problems are real, and what you design will matter.

What You'll Be Doing

Architect and design digital subsystems for high-speed Ser Des IP including Backplane Ethernet, PCIe, SATA, and USB 2/3 PHYs

Analyze and define digital and analog interface specifications, translating system-level requirements into implementable RTL and design constraints

Drive design flow decisions for clock domain crossing, synthesis, DFT insertion, and low-power architecture across complex mixed-signal blocks

Collaborate directly with ASIC verification engineers to define testplans, review assertion and code coverage, and close functional coverage gaps

Perform gate-level simulation, analyze timing and power, and debug failure cases across digital and mixed-signal boundaries

Mentor junior design engineers on RTL quality, design intent, synthesis impact, and cross-functional collaboration

Work across design groups and customer support teams to resolve design issues, clarify specifications, and support silicon bring-up

The Impact You Will Have

Your architectural decisions will define the performance, power, and area of Ser Des IP used in high-volume networking and storage products worldwide

The design flows and methodologies you establish will set the standard for how the team handles CDC, DFT, and low-power design across future product generations

Your collaboration with verification will reduce tapeout risk and catch critical issues before they reach silicon

The testplans and coverage strategies you help create will directly improve functional quality and reduce post-silicon debug cycles

Your mentorship will accelerate the growth of junior engineers and raise the technical bar across the team

The specifications you write will become the foundation for cross-functional alignment between digital, analog, verification, and implementation teams

Your work will enable customers to deliver faster, lower-power, more reliable connectivity in everything from data centers to consumer devices

What You'll Need

Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or equivalent practical experience

10+ years of hands-on digital ASIC design experience, with significant work in high-speed or mixed-signal environments

Strong proficiency in Verilog or VHDL for RTL design and gate-level simulation

Deep understanding of clock domain crossing design, analysis, and verification methodologies

Hands-on experience with synthesis tools and techniques, including timing closure and power optimization

Solid knowledge of DFT methodologies including scan insertion, ATPG, and boundary scan

Experience working closely with verification teams on testplan…