Principal FPGA Engineer

Job Title

Principal FPGA Engineer

Role Summary

Senior, hands-on engineering role leading FPGA design and development for defense-focused products (VITA/VPX modules and custom form-factor boards). The role drives FPGA architecture, implementation, validation, prototype bring-up, and production transition while mentoring junior engineers and coordinating with cross-functional teams.

Experience Level

Senior-level; typically requires 10+ years of FPGA hardware development experience.

Responsibilities

Work as technical lead on FPGA projects from concept through production and support sustaining engineering efforts.

• Lead FPGA architecture, implementation, verification, and release for VPX and custom board designs.
• Develop RTL and IP (SystemVerilog, Verilog, or VHDL); build simulation testbenches; perform synthesis and timing closure.
• Perform prototyping, board bring-up, hardware debugging, and validation including environmental testing.
• Collaborate with program managers, systems, hardware, software, test, and manufacturing teams to meet project requirements and schedules.
• Estimate resources, contribute to project planning and scheduling, and support production transitions.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to junior FPGA engineers.

Requirements

Key technical skills, security, and leadership expectations. Must-have items listed first; followed by common assets.

• Must-have: 10+ years of FPGA hardware development experience, including high-speed, mixed-signal, or embedded applications at high data rates.
• Must-have: Strong FPGA design flow knowledge: RTL design, simulation, synthesis, timing closure, and bitstream generation.
• Must-have: Proficient debugging and validation skills with lab equipment (oscilloscope, logic analyzer, etc.).
• Must-have: Experience leading projects and mentoring engineering staff; ability to drive complex designs to completion.
• Must-have: U.S. citizenship is mandatory; active security clearance preferred.
• Nice-to-have / Assets: Experience with Xilinx Vivado/ISE, Zynq MPSoC, Versal, UltraScale+, Vivado IP Integrator; AMD/Xilinx/Intel FPGA platforms; Microchip Libero SoC or Intel Quartus.
• Nice-to-have / Assets: Board bring-up and integrated logic analyzers, high-speed serial interfaces, signal integrity concepts, scripting/automation (e.g., Tcl), and FPGA resource/power estimation tools.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field is required. An advanced degree (Master's) is a plus.

About the Company

Company: Curtiss-Wright

Headquarters: Davidson, NC, United States

Curtiss-Wright is an engineering company that designs and manufactures products and services for the aerospace, defense, and industrial markets, specializing in embedded computing, avionics, and naval systems with a focus on modular open-systems solutions.