Principal FPGA Engineer

Job Title

Principal FPGA Engineer

Role Summary

Lead FPGA architecture, design, integration and verification for high-assurance embedded systems in a secure-technology environment. The role combines hands-on FPGA development with technical leadership and mentoring across multidisciplinary engineering teams.

Full-time role requiring onsite presence; responsible for driving technical delivery from concept to deployment with emphasis on performance, reliability and security.

Experience Level

Senior / Principal level. The posting targets an experienced FPGA professional; no explicit years-of-experience range provided.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities across the full engineering lifecycle.

• Lead FPGA architecture, design, development and verification activities.
• Derive firmware requirements from system-level specifications and ensure requirement traceability.
• Create high-quality FPGA designs following industry best practices and produce technical documentation and specifications.
• Define and drive verification and validation activities, including tool flows and test strategies.
• Interpret hardware schematics and interface specifications; integrate FPGA designs into complex embedded systems.
• Provide technical leadership, chair technical reviews and mentor engineering teams.
• Support project planning, estimation, risk management and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Collaborate with systems, hardware and software specialists to deliver secure, high-performance solutions.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and eligibility requirements; desirable skills for candidates who will excel in this environment.

• Must-have: Strong FPGA development experience using VHDL and proven expertise across the complete FPGA/firmware development lifecycle.
• Must-have: Experience with FPGA vendors such as Xilinx, Intel (Altera), Lattice or Microchip/Microsemi.
• Must-have: Strong understanding of FPGA verification methodologies, tool flows, and experience with synchronous and asynchronous digital design.
• Must-have: Ability to interpret hardware schematics and interface specifications; familiar with communications protocols (SPI, I2C, UART/USART, TCP/IP, UDP).
• Must-have: Experience with version control, change management and defect tracking tools; strong systems thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Must-have: Ability to lead and influence technical teams and to produce technical documentation and design artefacts.
• Must-have (security): Eligibility to obtain Developed Vetting (DV) security clearance; typically requires British citizenship and long-term UK residency.
• Nice-to-have: Experience in defence, aerospace, national security or other highly regulated environments; secure communications, cryptographic or high-assurance systems.
• Nice-to-have: Experience with continuous integration/automated test environments, requirements management and systems engineering tools, or structured engineering lifecycle methodologies.

Education Requirements

Not specified.

About the Company

Company: Matchtech

Headquarters: Leicester, England, UK

Technical recruitment specialist focusing on engineering, technology and defence sectors, placing professionals into roles across electronics, software and hardware domains. They advertise roles and provide staffing solutions for clients in high-assurance and regulated industries.