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Principal AI Engineer

pin icon Marlborough, Massachusetts, United States Apply Now
Category Engineering Hire Type Employee Job ID 17253 Base Salary Range $191000-$287000 Date posted 05/14/2026

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 are the engineer who sees the architecture, not just the code. When you walk into a room and hear "distributed, API-first, cloud-native," you already have a mental map for how to get from requirements to running production workloads. Years of building platforms that scale and stay maintainable have taught you that the hardest part is not shipping version one, it is building something others can actually build on six months later. Ambiguity does not slow you down. You ask the right questions, clarify what matters, and deliver. Strong opinions about OAuth, mTLS, and the realities of building for multi-tenant SaaS come from experience, not blog posts. When someone mentions Redis versus Infinispan, or event-driven with Kafka, you are already thinking through the tradeoffs. You are comfortable picking up a whiteboard marker to sketch a new GenAI framework in the morning, then jumping into Go or Python to prototype it in the afternoon. You thrive on collaboration and enjoy being the technical compass for other engineers. At Synopsys, you will build platforms that enable AI-powered solutions at scale, and your work will matter.


What You'll Be Doing:

  • Design and build scalable, distributed systems running in Kubernetes environments using Docker and container orchestration
  • Develop GenAI platform primitives, frameworks, and SDKs that empower engineering teams building AI-powered solutions across Synopsys product lines
  • Translate ambiguous requirements and business needs into clear technical designs, then ship working code that meets enterprise standards
  • Ensure platform services meet production-grade expectations for scalability, reliability, security, and observability
  • Rapidly prototype solutions, validate designs with working demos, and deliver production-ready systems that others depend on
  • Build and manage reusable agent skills and tools for AI/ML workflows, making it easier for teams to integrate intelligent features
  • Participate in design and code reviews, providing hands-on technical guidance and mentorship to engineers across the platform team


The Impact You Will Have:

  • Enable Synopsys teams to build and deploy AI-powered features reliably and securely, accelerating innovation across product lines
  • Raise the bar for platform scalability and reliability, ensuring systems can handle rapid growth and evolving customer requirements
  • Make enterprise-grade security and privacy the default by embedding best practices into platform architecture from the start
  • Reduce time-to-market for new AI solutions by providing robust, reusable frameworks and SDKs that teams can trust
  • Drive adoption of modern DevOps and CI/CD practices, improving team efficiency and release velocity across engineering
  • Shape the technical direction for distributed systems and AI integration, influencing architecture decisions at a company-wide scale
  • Mentor and level up engineers around you, building a culture of technical excellence and pragmatic problem-solving


What You'll Need:

  • Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field
  • 10+ years of software engineering experience with significant responsibility at the principal or lead level
  • Proven track record designing and delivering large-scale distributed systems or platform products that teams actually use
  • Strong programming skills with Go and Python, and hands-on experience with Docker and Kubernetes in production environments
  • Deep experience designing authentication and authorization systems, especially OAuth 2.0, OIDC, mTLS, SPIFFE/SPIRE, and Kerberos
  • Solid understanding of multi-tenant SaaS architectures, microservices, and event-driven systems using Kafka or RabbitMQ
  • Experience with distributed caching (Redis, Infinispan), large-scale relational databases, and object storage like S3
  • Familiarity with distributed workflow engines and orchestration systems for managing long-running or stateful workflows
  • Proficiency with SDLC tools including Jira, Git, and Argo, plus experience with data modeling and automation workflows
  • Understanding of non-functional requirements including security, privacy, scalability, reliability, and cost optimization
  • Experience with database schema design, indexing, query optimization, and transactional consistency
  • Architecture or framework certifications like TOGAF are a plus
  • Experience with AI/ML, Generative AI, LLM systems, AI gateways, Model Context Protocol (MCP), or agent frameworks is a plus


Who You Are:

  • You can explain the tradeoffs between event-driven and microservices architectures to a technical or non-technical audience without losing the details that matter
  • Comfortable taking vague or incomplete requirements, you ask clarifying questions and drive toward a practical solution instead of waiting for perfect information
  • You make security, scalability, and maintainability part of every design conversation, not something to retrofit later
  • Mentoring and sharing technical context comes naturally to you, and you help others avoid common pitfalls while raising the technical bar for the team
  • You seek out feedback and code reviews, and you are quick to provide constructive guidance to peers without creating bottlenecks
  • Keeping up with new tools and frameworks matters to you, but you know when to use proven solutions over the latest trend


The Team You'll Be Part Of:

You will join the GenAI Platform team, a dynamic group dedicated to integrating cutting-edge technologies into the product development lifecycle. The team focuses on designing scalable and modular platforms that enhance the efficiency and reliability of Synopsys’ processes. Collaboration and innovation are central to the team, driving Synopsys’ success in the semiconductor industry.

Rewards and Benefits:

We offer a comprehensive range of health, wellness, and financial benefits to support your needs. Our total rewards include both monetary and non-monetary offerings. Your recruiter will provide more details about salary range and benefits during the hiring process.If you are a visionary professional passionate about platform engineering and AI and are looking to make a significant impact in the semiconductor space, we encourage you to apply for this exciting opportunity in North America.

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.

In addition to the base salary, this role may be eligible for an annual bonus, equity, and other discretionary bonuses. Synopsys offers comprehensive health, wellness, and financial benefits as part of a competitive total rewards package. The actual compensation offered will be based on a number of job-related factors, including location, skills, experience, and education. Your recruiter can share more specific details on the total rewards package upon request. The base salary range for this role is across the U.S.

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