FPGA Design Engineer - Avionics

Job Title

FPGA Design Engineer - Avionics

Role Summary

Design, implement, and verify FPGA firmware for satellite avionics systems across multiple boards and subsystems. Work on flight computers, payload processing, communications, and sensor interfaces to deliver radiation-tolerant, reliable FPGA designs for a space environment.

Role sits on a digital engineering team collaborating with power, PCB, and systems engineers to support flight hardware from RTL through board bring-up.

Experience Level

Mid-level. Typical guidance: 5+ years of FPGA design experience in aerospace, defense, or high-reliability systems.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include RTL design, verification, and delivery of FPGA subsystems for spaceflight.

• Design and implement RTL in SystemVerilog or VHDL for satellite avionics FPGAs.
• Develop AXI Memory-Mapped and AXI-Stream protocol implementations for inter-subsystem communication.
• Perform FPGA resource estimation and budgeting (logic, memory, DSP).
• Implement CDC techniques and achieve timing closure across multi-clock designs.
• Design clock/reset tree architectures and manage timing-closure strategies.
• Implement SPI, I2C, GPIO and integrate high-speed transceiver links.
• Apply fault-tolerant techniques (TMR, ECC, scrubbing) and SEE mitigation strategies.
• Perform synthesis, place-and-route, and timing analysis using vendor toolchains.
• Support board bring-up with configuration, interface verification, and debug sequences.
• Collaborate with digital, power, and PCB layout engineers to meet system requirements.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and domain experience; preferred items listed separately.

• 5+ years of FPGA design experience in aerospace, defense, or other high-reliability environments.
• Proficiency in SystemVerilog and/or VHDL for RTL development.
• Experience with FPGA synthesis, place-and-route flows, and timing closure workflows.
• Demonstrated knowledge of AXI or similar bus protocols and interface design.
• Experience with clock-domain crossing techniques, FIFO design, and multi-clock architectures.
• Understanding of radiation effects on FPGAs and mitigation strategies (TMR, ECC, scrubbing).
• Experience using RTL simulation tools and vendor timing analysis tools.

Nice-to-have:

• Experience across multiple FPGA platforms and vendor toolchains (flash-based, SRAM-based, anti-fuse, etc.).
• Background in DSP (FFT, FIR/IIR) and transceiver/high-speed serial design.
• Exposure to DAC/ADC interfaces and mixed-signal considerations.
• Experience with satellite or spacecraft FPGA applications.
• Proficiency in Python or TCL scripting for automation and build infrastructure.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field is specified.

About the Company

Company: E-Space

Headquarters: Saratoga, CA, United States

E-Space develops low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite systems to enable hyper-scaled Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity. The company designs advanced satellite hardware and communication systems to reduce costs, improve scalability, and deliver actionable intelligence from space.