Functional Safety Staff Engineer, ASIC Digital Design

Job Description and 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 years in the space where hardware meets safety, and you know that a chip destined for an automotive system is not just about performance or power, it is about proving that when something goes wrong, the design catches it before it matters. You think in failure modes, diagnostic coverage, and safety mechanisms, not as compliance checkboxes but as engineering decisions that determine whether a product ships or gets recalled.

You have read ISO 26262 enough times that you can tell when a Technical Safety Concept is missing a dependency or when an FMEA is too shallow to survive an audit. You are comfortable sitting with architects who are sketching out a new IP block and asking the questions that surface safety gaps early, before RTL is written and before verification plans are locked. You do not wait for someone to hand you a safety requirement, you help shape it based on what the hardware can realistically deliver.

You have done the work. You have written safety analyses, reviewed fault injection results, defined safety mechanisms, and worked through assessor feedback without losing your patience or your clarity. At Synopsys, you will work on IP and SoC products where safety is not an afterthought, and where the rigor you bring will directly shape what our automotive customers can build.

What You'll Be Doing

• Drive Functional Safety activities across ASIC IP and SoC development lifecycles, from early architecture through verification and release
• Develop and review safety requirements, Technical Safety Concepts, and safety work products in compliance with ISO 26262
• Conduct safety analyses including FMEA, FMEDA, FTA, and Dependent Failure Analysis to identify and mitigate failure modes
• Define, implement, and evaluate safety mechanisms at the IP, subsystem, and SoC level to meet diagnostic coverage and fault detection targets
• Collaborate with Architecture, RTL Design, and Verification teams to integrate safety into design and validation workflows
• Interface with customers, cross-functional teams, and external safety assessors to support audits, reviews, and certification activities
• Document safety analyses, traceability matrices, and compliance evidence for internal reviews and external assessments

The Impact You Will Have

• Enable Synopsys IP and SoC products to meet automotive safety standards and support customer certification timelines
• Reduce late-stage design rework by identifying safety risks early in the architecture and design phases
• Improve diagnostic coverage and fault detection capabilities across safety-critical semiconductor products
• Strengthen customer confidence by delivering well-documented, auditable safety work products that pass assessor scrutiny
• Influence hardware safety architectures that will be deployed in next-generation automotive systems
• Build internal capability by mentoring design and verification engineers on Functional Safety principles and practices
• Contribute to a culture where safety is embedded in engineering decisions, not bolted on at the end

What You'll Need

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electronics Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related discipline
• 6 to 10 years of experience in Functional Safety engineering, with a focus on automotive semiconductor, IP, or SoC development
• Strong working knowledge of ISO 26262 standards, processes, and compliance requirements across hardware development lifecycles
• Proven experience developing and reviewing safety requirements, Technical Safety Concepts, and related safety work products
• Hands-on expertise in FMEA, FMEDA, FTA, and Dependent Failure Analysis methodologies
• Experience defining and evaluating safety mechanisms, diagnostic coverage, and fault mitigation strategies at IP or SoC level
• Understanding of semiconductor product development and verification flows, and the ability to work independently with cross-functional teams, customers, and assessors. Experience with automotive IPs, networking or communication IPs, or safety-critical products is a strong plus

Who You Are

• You can walk into an architecture review and spot a safety gap that others miss, not because you are looking for problems but because you understand how failures propagate
• You write safety analyses that are clear enough for an assessor to follow and detailed enough to survive a technical challenge from a design lead
• You do not get stuck when requirements are incomplete or when a design decision has not been finalized, you work with what you have and flag what needs to be resolved
• You can explain a complex safety mechanism to an RTL engineer in a way that makes sense within their workflow, not as an abstract concept but as something they can implement and verify
• You are organized enough to track safety work products across multiple IP blocks and disciplined enough to maintain traceability without cutting corners
• You push back when a proposed design does not meet safety targets, and you do it in a way that moves the conversation forward instead of shutting it down

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.