Principal FPGA Engineer

Job Title

Principal FPGA Engineer

Role Summary

The Principal FPGA Engineer will lead FPGA RTL architecture, development, verification, and hardware testing for avionics systems on Astrolab rover vehicles. This role sits on the Avionics team and reports to the Director of Avionics Engineering in the Hawthorne, CA office.

Work includes defining HW/SW interfaces, developing RTL for FPGAs/SoCs, leading verification and timing analysis, and supporting system-level test campaigns. One short motivating note: contribute to planetary surface systems used in commercial rover missions.

Experience Level

Senior — candidate should have 15+ years of relevant FPGA RTL architecture, development, verification, deployment, and maintenance experience.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include end-to-end FPGA development, verification, and test for flight hardware.

• Own FPGA RTL development from concept through flight delivery.
• Define FPGA logical architecture and HW/SW interfaces with other engineering disciplines.
• Implement RTL in SystemVerilog or VHDL for Microsemi, Xilinx, or similar FPGAs/SoCs.
• Create and run simulations, test benches, timing analysis, and hardware validation tests.
• Lead design reviews, maintain requirement traceability, and produce FPGA operation/interface documentation.
• Plan and execute test campaigns: manual unit tests, automated unit tests, and system-level tests.
• Design for space environments, including radiation impact assessment and mitigation strategies.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience.

• 15+ years of experience in FPGA RTL architecture, development, verification, deployment, and maintenance.
• Proficient in SystemVerilog or VHDL.
• Experience with verification techniques, timing analysis, and stability analysis.
• Familiarity with scripting for build/test automation (TCL, shell, Python, etc.).
• Proficiency reading schematics and understanding PCB designs.
• Understanding of embedded software and interfaces to fabric logic.
• Experience with AXI protocols (AXI4 family) and common bus/memory interfaces (DDR4, SPI, I2C, UART, etc.).
• Demonstrated success working in dynamic, multidisciplinary engineering environments.

Education Requirements

Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent; or equivalent practical experience. (Source also allows equivalent experience in place of degree.)

About the Company

Company: Venturi Astrolab

Headquarters: Hawthorne, CA, United States

Venturi Astrolab develops and operates commercial planetary rovers and related mission hardware to enable exploration and operations on distant planetary surfaces. The company designs, builds, and tests avionics, electronics, and systems for durable, flight-ready robotic vehicles for space applications.