Product Management, Staff

We AreSynopsys 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 AreYou have spent years working close enough to photonic design that you understand the difference between what a datasheet promises and what actually happens when someone tries to simulate a 100-channel WDM link at 2 a.M. before tapeout. You know the pain points because you have either felt them yourself or sat with enough customers to recognize the pattern when a workflow breaks down.
You think like a builder, not a feature collector. When a customer says they need better convergence, you ask three more questions before deciding whether that means a solver upgrade, a UI change, or just better documentation. You are comfortable sitting with an R&D team talking about FDTD mesh refinement and then walking into a sales call to explain why that matters to someone designing a silicon photonics transceiver for a hyperscale data center.
You do not need perfect consensus to move. You gather input, make a call, and own it. At Synopsys, you will own the roadmap for OptoCompiler and Lumerical—tools that photonic IC designers, optical engineers, and process engineers at leading semiconductor companies, foundries, and research institutions depend on to bring next-generation photonic technologies from concept to production.
What You'll Be Doing
Own product strategy and roadmap for OptoCompiler and Lumerical, balancing customer needs, technical feasibility, competitive positioning, and business impact across datacom, silicon photonics, co-packaged optics, foundries, AR/VR, and quantum computing applications
Translate what you hear from photonic IC designers, optical engineers, and process engineers into clear product requirements and prioritized feature backlogs that R&D can execute against
Work directly with customers at semiconductor companies, foundries, and research institutions to understand their design workflows, adoption blockers, and emerging use cases in photonic integrated circuits, optical interconnects, and electronic-photonic co-design
Make roadmap prioritization decisions that maximize product impact and market success, informed by input from R&D, sales, applications engineering, and customer success teams
Lead product launches end-to-end: define release content, develop positioning and messaging, propose pricing and packaging adjustments, create 'What's New' content, and evangelize new capabilities internally and externally
Support go-to-market execution by collaborating with Product Marketing on launch plans, sales enablement materials, webinars, conference presentations, and technical collateral that help field teams win and support customers effectively
Monitor competitive dynamics, industry trends, and ecosystem shifts in photonics and photonic design automation to identify new opportunities, partnerships, or investment areas
The Impact You Will Have
Shape the direction of photonic design and simulation tools used by engineers building next-generation datacom, optical interconnects, co-packaged optics, metalenses, LEDs, and quantum computing systems
Accelerate customer time-to-tapeout by ensuring OptoCompiler and Lumerical solve real workflow problems for photonic IC designers, optical engineers, and process engineers at foundries and leading semiconductor companies
Strengthen Synopsys' leadership in photonic design automation by delivering differentiated capabilities that competitors cannot easily replicate
Influence R&D investment decisions with clear, data-backed roadmaps that connect technical work to market outcomes and revenue growth
Enable foundries and PIC designers to move faster from concept to production by removing friction in their simulation, design, and verification workflows
Build stronger relationships between Synopsys and the photonics ecosystem by showing up as a credible, responsive, and technically grounded partner
Drive revenue growth by making smart pricing, packaging, and positioning decisions that align product value with customer willingness to pay
What You'll Need
Bachelor's degree in engineering, physics, optics, photonics, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
5+ years of product management experience in photonics, optics, simulation software, or closely related technical domains, or 3+ years with an advanced degree (MS or PhD preferred)
Deep understanding of photonic design workflows, simulation methods such as FDTD, EME, or FEEM, and the customer use cases that drive tool adoption in datacom, silicon photonics, optical interconnects, or foundry environments
Direct experience with products like OptoCompiler, Lumerical, or adjacent photonic design and simulation platforms
Demonstrated ability to own a product roadmap and make prioritization decisions that balance customer impact, technical risk, competitive positioning, and business value
Strong technical communication skills, including the ability to present roadmaps, trade-offs, and business cases clearly to customers, internal teams, and executive leadership
Track record of leading product launches, including positioning, messaging, pricing and packaging recommendations, and sales enablement
Experience in EDA, photonic design automation, optical simulation, or adjacent engineering software markets is a strong plus
Willingness to travel occasionally for customer visits, conferences, and team meetings
Who You Are
You can sit in a technical deep dive with an R&D team in the morning and explain the business case for a feature to a VP in the afternoon without losing the thread
You push back when a roadmap request is too vague, a use case does not add up, or a launch plan is missing its audience, and you do it in a way that moves the conversation forward
You are comfortable making decisions with incomplete information, but you know which gaps matter and which ones you can work around
You treat customer conversations as discovery, not validation, and you come back with insights that change how the team thinks about the problem
You stay organized across multiple workstreams, stakeholders, and timelines without dropping details or losing sight of the bigger picture
You care about getting it right, not just getting it done, and you know the difference between shipping something that works and shipping something that actually helps
The Team You'll Be Part OfYou will report directly to the Director of Optics & Photonics Product Management and join an established optics product management organization. You will be the primary Product Manager dedicated to the Photonics portfolio, including Lumerical and OptoCompiler, and will collaborate closely with other Product Managers responsible for Speos, Zemax, cloud technologies, GPU solutions, licensing, and adjacent physics domains.
You will work cross-functionally with Product Marketing, R&D, Application Engineering, Sales, and Customer Success teams to drive product strategy and execution. The team is structured around Product Management, with strong collaboration across functions to ensure customer needs, technical innovation, and business objectives stay aligned.
Rewards and BenefitsWe 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.
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