Principal FPGA Engineer

Job Title

Principal FPGA Engineer

Role Summary

Senior, hands-on FPGA engineer responsible for leading the design, implementation, verification, and delivery of FPGA-based products for defense applications (VPX modules and custom boards). Work as part of an Integrated Product Team and collaborate with hardware, software, test, and manufacturing engineers.

Drive architecture, HDL development, simulation, prototyping, hardware bring-up, and product release; mentor junior engineers and provide technical leadership across projects.

Experience Level

Senior — typically 10+ years of FPGA hardware development experience.

Responsibilities

Primary duties for this role include:

• Lead FPGA architecture, implementation, and validation from concept through production release.
• Develop RTL (SystemVerilog/Verilog/VHDL), create simulation testbenches, and perform synthesis and timing closure.
• Perform simulation, place-and-route, bitstream generation, and hardware verification on target boards.
• Support circuit card development, prototype build, environmental testing, debugging, and transition to production.
• Use lab equipment for debug (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, integrated logic analyzers, etc.).
• Estimate resources, participate in project planning and scheduling, and ensure timely delivery.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to junior FPGA engineers and lead design reviews.
• Support sustaining engineering and customer-facing technical activities as required.

Requirements

Must-have skills and eligibility:

• 10+ years of FPGA hardware development experience, including high-speed or embedded applications and high data-rate interfaces.
• Strong FPGA design-flow knowledge: RTL design, simulation, synthesis, timing closure, and bitstream generation.
• Proven debugging and problem-solving skills with hands-on lab experience (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, etc.).
• Experience leading projects and mentoring engineers.
• Familiarity with high-speed digital design and signal integrity concepts, and with requirements capture and tracking.
• US Citizenship is mandatory; active security clearance preferred.

Nice-to-have / platform experience:

• Xilinx tools (Vivado, ISE), Zynq MPSoC, Versal, UltraScale+; AMD (Xilinx), Intel (Altera), or Microchip FPGA platforms.
• Simulation tools such as ModelSim or Questa; Vivado IP Integrator; Microchip Libero or Intel Quartus.
• Board bring-up and debug tools (ChipScope/integrated logic analyzers), embedded processor design and C software development.
• TCL or other automation scripting, FPGA resource and power estimation tools.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field is required. Advanced degree (MS/PhD) is a plus. No alternative-equivalent-education language specified.

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.