FPGA Design Engineer IV

FRONTGRADE TECHNOLOGIES

  • Huntsville, AL
  • $125,000-160,000 per year
  • Permanent
  • Full-time
  • 9 days ago
About Us:For more than six decades, the skilled thinkers, makers, and doers at Frontgrade have embraced our mission to solve complex technology challenges across the U.S. and around the globe.We’re the leading provider of high reliability and radiation assured solutions for defense, space, intelligence, commercial, and civil applications, and our products are designed to perform in the harshest of environments. From human spaceflight and space exploration to missile defense, electronic warfare, and healthcare tech advancements, our talented team stays in lockstep with our customers to ensure the success of their missions.Do you want to help shape the future? In an environment where innovation and ideas go hand-in-hand? Then come join the Frontgrade Team!Why Work For UsWe take care of our people and provide competitive health, wealth and wellbeing benefits – from day one. You’ll also discover learning and development opportunities so you can take your career to the next level – and beyond.Other benefits include:
  • Competitive Benefits: Medical (FSA + HSA), Dental, and Vision
  • Immediate 401K Vesting/Matching
  • Career Opportunity and Growth
  • Tuition Reimbursement
  • Student Loan Repayment
  • Generous PTO and 11 paid Holidays per year (8 regular and 3 floating)
  • 8 weeks of 100% Paid Family Leave
*Profit Sharing Plan applies to all non-Annual Incentive Plan and non-Sales Incentive Plan employees. Summary:We are seeking a Senior FPGA Design Engineer to architect, design, and maintain FPGA solutions for radiation-hardened electronic products supporting the aerospace, defense, and medical markets. This role involves delivering robust, high-reliability FPGA designs throughout the product development lifecycle—from concept through production. You will work with leading FPGA platforms such as Xilinx, Lattice, and Microchip to ensure performance, radiation tolerance, and long-term reliability. Responsibilities:KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
  • Lead FPGA design efforts, driving FPGA core development, core integration, and test activities to ensure optimal product performance, reliability, and compliance with product requirements.
  • Lead and mentor small FPGA design teams, providing technical guidance and fostering a collaborative, high-performance work environment.
  • Develop and maintain modular FPGA cores and reusable libraries, implementing critical FPGA infrastructure with a focus on scalability, efficient design reuse, and ensuring long-term product sustainability across various FPGA-based products.
  • Design and implement digital logic using RTL and logic synthesis techniques in SystemVerilog, Verilog, and VHDL to meet functional requirements and performance standards.
  • Utilize industry-standard tools such as QuestaSim for functional simulation, validation, and debugging of digital designs, in conjunction with vendor-specific compilation tools (e.g., Xilinx Vivado, Microchip Libero, Lattice Radiant/Diamond) to optimize and verify design accuracy.
  • Design, integrate, and test modern high-speed interfaces, including 10GbE, 40 GbE, 100 GbE, PCIe Gen 3/4, and DDR4 high-speed memory interfaces, ensuring compatibility, performance, and high reliability across products.
  • Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to develop product specifications, translating them into FPGA design architectures and clear implementation plans.
  • Work closely with embedded software engineers to ensure seamless product verification, coordinating FPGA and software integration and testing to validate overall product functionality.
  • Lead project planning efforts to identify and mitigate risks early in the development lifecycle, leveraging tools like evaluation boards and prototype testing to accelerate time-to-market and ensure successful delivery of product milestones.
  • Oversee and contribute to FPGA test strategy development, ensuring that all designs are rigorously tested through functional and performance validation to meet mission-critical standards.
Qualifications:QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE
  • Electrical (Bachelor's degree) or Computer Engineering (Bachelor's degree)
  • Minimum eight (8) years of experience in a specialized functional discipline.
  • OR (12) years of experience may be considered in lieu of a Bachelors Degree.
  • OR (6) years of experience may be considered w/ a Masters Degree.
  • OR (3) years of experience may be considered w/ a PhD.
  • Hands-on experience with Xilinx, Microchip, and Lattice FPGA platforms.
  • Experience in control plane and data plane design (e.g., AXI4-Lite, AXI4-Stream), with a focus on developing modular cores that can be leveraged across various platform designs.
  • Proven ability to lead project planning and de-risking activities, leveraging tools like evaluation boards to improve end-product time to market and reduce development risks.
  • Experience collaborating with embedded software engineers to ensure seamless product verification and successful integration of FPGA and software functionality.
  • Strong background in high-speed interface design and integration (e.g., PCIe Gen 3/4, 10 GbE, 40 GbE, 100 GbE, DDR4).
  • Excellent communication and problem-solving skills to effectively work with cross-functional teams and external stakeholders.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
  • This position requires access to technology, materials, software or hardware that is controlled by either ITAR or EAR U.S. export laws. As a condition to this job offer, in order to be employed in this position, you must be able to obtain an U.S. Government export license(s), as required by law.
  • Pay Range: $125,000 - $160,000 annually. Applicable pay within the posted range may vary based on factors including, but not limited to, geographical location, job function of the position, education, and experience of the successful candidate.
Employment Transparency:WE ARE AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYERWe welcome differences and celebrate new ideas. We believe the diversity of our people inspires our creativity and drives our innovation. Everyone is welcome here, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or genetic information.We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation due to a disability for any part of the employment process, please email .If you have relevant skills that are not reflected in your resume, we welcome your application and encourage you to share more in an optional cover letter or to join our Talent Community .

FRONTGRADE TECHNOLOGIES