Senior FPGA Engineer

Job Title

Senior FPGA Engineer

Role Summary

Design, develop, and verify safety-critical FPGA/CPLD hardware for high-reliability aerospace and ground-vehicle systems across requirements, implementation, verification, and system integration phases.

Work as part of an electrical engineering team supporting prototype evaluation, qualification testing, production support, and obsolescence management. Onsite role in Cedar Rapids.

Experience Level

Senior — typically 8–12+ years of relevant experience.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include full lifecycle FPGA/CPLD development and support for aerospace hardware.

• Generate and refine hardware requirements for FPGA/CPLD subsystems.
• Design RTL and perform synthesis, place-and-route, and implementation.
• Develop test benches, run functional simulation, and execute requirements-based verification.
• Perform static timing analysis, power analysis, and signal integrity checks.
• Support prototype evaluation, design reviews, qualification testing, and system integration.
• Provide production support, obsolescence mitigation, and field integration assistance.
• Document designs, test procedures, and verification results for safety-critical hardware.
• Travel up to 25% for testing, integration, or customer support activities.

Requirements

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

Must-have:

• Proven FPGA/CPLD design experience with HDL (VHDL, SystemVerilog) and RTL development.
• Hands-on hardware build, test, and system integration experience for embedded designs.
• Experience with timing analysis and design/analysis tools (e.g., timing designers, HyperLynx).
• Experience using Matlab/Simulink for FPGA code generation.
• Knowledge of digital electronic devices and circuit design principles; familiarity with integration of FPGAs onto circuit cards.
• Strong problem-solving, analytical, written, and verbal communication skills; able to work independently and in teams.
• Willingness to travel up to 25%.
• U.S. Citizens or Green Card holders only (visa requirement).

Nice-to-have:

• Experience with microcontroller/microprocessor interfaces (I2C, SPI, CAN, ARINC, etc.) and memory/serial interfaces.
• Experience with FPGA vendors and toolchains (Microsemi, Xilinx, Lattice, Altera) and tools such as Synplify, ModelSim, Questa.
• Familiarity with RTCA/DO-254 hardware development objectives and aerospace qualification processes.
• Experience with UVM testbenches, state machines, code coverage, DOORS or other requirements/configuration management tools.
• High-speed digital card design experience, constraint generation, and signal integrity analysis.

Education Requirements

Minimum: Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) preferred. The posting specifies Bachelor's +10–12 years experience or Master's +8 years experience; minimum training/education listed as BSEE. Equivalent practical experience is not explicitly stated.

About the Company

Company: Accord Technologies

Engineering and technical services firm providing staffing, design, and systems engineering support for aerospace and defense programs, with expertise in embedded systems, avionics, FPGA/CPLD development, and hardware integration.