FPGA Design Engineer - Avionics
Role summary
E-Space is seeking an FPGA Design Engineer to develop, implement, and verify FPGA firmware for satellite avionics systems. The role involves designing RTL for flight computers, payload processing, communications, and sensor interfaces, requiring strong digital design fundamentals and radiation-tolerant FPGA design for space environments. Responsibilities include RTL design in SystemVerilog/VHDL, AXI protocol implementation, resource estimation, clock-domain crossing, timing closure, peripheral interface design, fault-tolerant techniques, synthesis, place-and-route, and board bring-up support. Requires a Bachelor's/Master's in EE/CE or related, 5+ years of FPGA experience in aerospace/defense/high-reliability systems, and proficiency in SystemVerilog/VHDL, synthesis, place-and-route, and AXI protocols.
We are looking for FPGA Design Engineers to develop, implement, and verify FPGA firmware for satellite avionics systems. You will work across multiple boards and subsystems, designing RTL for flight computers, payload processing, communications, and sensor interfaces. The role requires strong digital design fundamentals and the ability to deliver reliable, radiation-tolerant FPGA designs for a space environment.
Key Responsibilities:
- Design and implement RTL in SystemVerilog or VHDL for satellite avionics FPGAs across a variety of FPGA platforms.
- Develop AXI Memory-Mapped and AXI-Stream protocol implementations for inter-subsystem communication.
- Perform FPGA resource and size estimation including logic, memory, and DSP budgeting.
- Implement clock-domain-crossing (CDC) design techniques and verify timing closure across designs.
- Design clock/reset tree architectures and manage timing-closure strategies for complex multi-clock designs.
- Develop SPI, I²C, GPIO, and other low-speed peripheral interfaces alongside high-speed transceiver links.
- Apply fault-tolerant digital design techniques including TMR, ECC, scrubbing, and SEE mitigation.
- Perform synthesis and place-and-route using vendor toolchains, including custom placement constraints.
- Support board bring-up by developing configuration, interface verification, and debug test sequences.
- Collaborate with digital design, power, and PCB layout engineers to ensure FPGA support circuitry meets requirements.
Required Qualifications:
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience with a variety of FPGA platforms and vendor toolchains (e.g., flash-based, SRAM-based, anti-fuse architectures).
- Background in signal processing (FFT, FIR/IIR filters) and DSP integration.
- Experience with transceiver design and high-speed serial communications on FPGAs.
- Exposure to DAC/ADC interfaces and mixed-signal digital handling.
- Experience with satellite or spacecraft FPGA applications.
- Proficiency in Python or TCL scripting for automation and build infrastructure.
Tools & Technologies:
- FPGA vendor toolchains (synthesis, place-and-route, timing analysis)
- RTL simulation tools (e.g., VCS, QuestaSim, or equivalent)
- Python, TCL, or shell scripting for build automation
- Makefiles for FPGA build workflows