
FPGA Design Engineer
Required skills
- FPGA
- embedded firmware
- embedded systems
- VHDL
- Verilog
- SystemVerilog
- UART
- Ethernet
- SPI
- I2C
Nice to have
- DSP
- system design
- technical trade studies
- C++
- assembly
- Linux
Role summary
Leidos is seeking an Embedded Firmware Developer with FPGA design experience to join their Defense Systems Electrical Systems department. This role involves architecting, implementing, and testing embedded firmware and software for aerospace and military systems, including FPGAs, microcontrollers, and microprocessors. Responsibilities span the full product lifecycle, from concept to post-delivery support, including troubleshooting board-level issues and assessing root causes. The position requires a Bachelor's degree in Electrical or Computer Engineering, at least 4 years of embedded system design experience, proficiency in FPGA design and hardware description languages, and experience with common communication protocols. A Secret Clearance and US Citizenship are mandatory.
Looking for an opportunity to make an impact?
At Leidos, we deliver innovative solutions through the efforts of our diverse and talented people who are dedicated to our customers’ success. We empower our teams, contribute to our communities, and operate sustainable. Everything we do is built on a commitment to do the right thing for our customers, our people, and our community. Our Mission, Vision, and Values guide the way we do business.
Your greatest work is ahead!
Leidos’ Defense Systems Electrical Systems department is seeking a talented Embedded Firmware Developer to join our team. The Electrical Systems Department is a design-focused group of engineers specializing in advanced hardware-based products. The individual selected for this position will be an embedded design engineer with varied technical interests and demonstrated engineering and leadership skills. The individual must be a self- starter with experience working with inter-disciplinary teams to solve challenging technical problems. The engineer will lead efforts on and develop architectures for embedded systems integrated into a diverse range of aerospace and military systems including manned/unmanned ground/air vehicles, missiles, defensive radars, and space systems.
The selected candidate will be a key technical leader in a fast-paced, environment through all phases of the product life cycle from concept development and detailed design through manufacturing, qualification testing, and post-delivery support. The candidate will be responsible for architecting, implementing, and testing embedded firmware and software on a variety of platforms, including FPGAs, microcontrollers, microprocessors, and mixed signal designs. Additional skills such as communications data-link design, digital-signal processing (DSP) design, system design, experience with technical trade studies, and evaluation of technology improvements are a plus.
With a product focus, the individual is also expected to actively partner with other engineers, project managers, technicians, and the customer to develop solutions that adhere to a diverse set of requirements. This includes architecture decisions from requirements that help inform and drive hardware implementations and working closely with hardware engineers. Additionally, the engineer will support resolution of technical issues that are discovered during the manufacture and test of deliverable products. This will include troubleshooting board-level issues, assessing failures for root cause, and identifying corrective actions. The ideal candidate will thrive in a learning environment that encourages leadership and technical growth.
If this sounds like the kind of environment where you can thrive, keep reading!
Leidos Defense Systems Sector provides a diverse portfolio of systems, solutions, and services covering land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace for customers worldwide. Solutions for Defense include enterprise and mission IT, large-scale intelligence systems, command and control, geospatial and data analytics, cybersecurity, logistics, training, and intelligence analysis and operations support. Our team is solving the world’s toughest security challenges for customers with “can’t fail” missions. To explore and learn more, click here!
Are you ready to make an impact? Share your resume with us today!
Primary Responsibilities
- Key technical leader in a fast-paced, environment.
- Responsible for all phases of the product life cycle from concept development and detailed design through manufacturing, qualification testing, and post-delivery support.
- Responsible for architecting, implementing, and testing embedded firmware and software on a variety of platforms, including FPGAs, microcontrollers, microprocessors, and mixed signal designs.
- Additional skills such as communications data-link design, digital-signal processing (DSP) design, system design, experience with technical trade studies, and evaluation of technology improvements are a plus.
- Support resolution of technical issues that are discovered during the manufacture and test of deliverable products.
- Troubleshooting board-level issues, assessing failures for root cause, and identifying corrective actions.
Basic Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering or equivalent degree from an ABET-accredited institution.
- Candidate must have at least 4+ years of experience in embedded system design and test or 2+ years with MS degree.
- Understand trade-offs of embedded system targets (such as FPGA, SoC, microcontroller, RTOS, bare-metal) for developing best cost/option architectures
- Proven experience with FPGA design and hardware description languages such as VHDL, Verilog, or SystemVerilog
- Experience with common communication protocols such as: UART, Ethernet, SPI, I2C, CAN bus, etc.
- Hands-on laboratory experience with instrumentation, test equipment, and debug/test methods
- Position requires candidates to be capable of performing in a collaborative engineering environment working closely with multi-disciplinary teams
- Candidate must be a resident of the North Alabama area or willing to relocate to the Huntsville - North Alabama, AL area
- Candidate must be a US Citizen and possess (and be able to maintain) a Final Secret Clearance or meet the eligibility to obtain (and maintain) a Secret Clearance.
Preferred Qualifications
- Developing overall firmware/software architecture for embedded systems
- Experience with embedded software/firmware programming in languages such as C, C++, or assembly languages
- Embedded operating systems (Linux, VxWorks, Integrity, FreeRTOS, uC/OS-II)
- GNU/Linux and development of kernel drivers
- Utilizing modern Xilinx FPGA and SoC families and design tools (Xilinx IP Cores, AXI4, AXI-Stream)
- Software or FPGA test and verification experience (unit testing, FPGA simulation testbenching, HWIL)
- RISC microprocessors architectures (ARM Cortex, Microblaze, PowerPC, RISC-V)
- Memory architectures, types, and caching
- Experience with high speed interfaces (PCIe, Aurora, 100GbE, JESD204B)
- Electronics and PCBA design
If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo — because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 — and moving faster than anyone else dares.
Original Posting:
October 6, 2026For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.
Pay Range:
Pay Range $69,550.00 - $125,725.00The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.
Sample Leidos interview questions
- 1
What are the key considerations when designing a highly available and consistent service registry?
system designmedium - 2
Buildings with an Ocean View Find all buildings that have an ocean view. Input: heights = [1,2,3,4] Output: [3] Explanation: Since the ocean is to the right, only the rightmost tallest building (index 3) is not blocked by any others.
codingmedium - 3
Merge K Sorted Linked Lists Merge K sorted linked lists. Input: lists = [[2,2,3],[1,5]] Output: [1,2,2,3,5] Explanation: Extracts the smallest current node iteratively using a priority queue to build a single merged and sorted linked list.
codingmedium - 4
Optimal Meeting Point Calculate the optimal meeting point for multiple people on a 2D grid. Input: grid = [[1,0],[0,1]] Output: 2 Explanation: The optimal meeting point is either (0,1) or (1,0), requiring exactly 1 step from each person resulting in a total distance of 2.
codingmedium - 5
Maximize the minimum distance between aggressive cows in stalls. Input: stalls = [0,4,3,7,10,9], cows = 3 Output: 4 Explanation: Placing the cows at positions 0, 4, and 10 yields a maximum possible minimum distance of 4 between any two cows.
codingmedium
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