Senior FPGA Engineer (Starshield)

Job Title

Senior FPGA Engineer (Starshield)

Role Summary

Join the Starshield satellite digital design team to design, develop, and validate FPGA/SoC-based systems for satellite communications, sensors, cryptography, and RF/optical links. The team delivers flight-ready digital systems that operate in space and support national security and government missions.

Work across hardware, RF, DSP and software teams to own the full lifecycle of FPGA designs: architecture, RTL implementation, verification, synthesis, timing closure, lab bring-up, and in-orbit validation. Base salary range: $160,000 - $225,000 per year.

Experience Level

Senior — role expects an experienced engineer (typically 5+ years of professional software development with a relevant bachelor’s degree, or 7+ years of professional experience without a degree) and multiple years of FPGA/RTL development experience.

Responsibilities

The primary responsibilities include:

• Architect, implement, and own digital, DSP, and communications system designs for satellite spacecraft.
• Develop RTL implementations and signal-processing algorithms (Verilog/SystemVerilog/VHDL).
• Integrate designs onto FPGA/SoC platforms and validate PS/PL interfaces and high-throughput data paths.
• Perform synthesis, static timing analysis, lab bring-up, and device validation for flight hardware.
• Collaborate closely with RF/antenna, software, and DSP engineers to design and validate software-defined radio and communications subsystems.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills, security, and workplace expectations:

• Minimum 2+ years developing for FPGA platforms.
• Minimum 2+ years using Verilog, SystemVerilog, or VHDL for RTL design.
• Experience with RTL design, verification, synthesis, timing analysis, and lab bring-up/validation.
• Experience integrating logic onto SoC platforms and designing PS/PL interfaces.
• Familiarity with FPGA firmware development and common FPGA toolchains (preferred: Xilinx toolchain).
• Knowledge of DSP concepts (FFT, correlation, FIR/IIR filters, modulation, FEC, channel estimation) and high-rate conversion interfaces (e.g., RFSoC, AD9361) is highly desirable.
• Comfort reading electronic schematics and contributing to hardware design discussions; experience with embedded software (C/C++) is beneficial.
• Ability to work extended hours and weekends as needed.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret security clearance is required.

Education Requirements

Requires a bachelor's degree in computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, or another engineering discipline with typically 5+ years of professional software development experience; alternatively, 7+ years of professional software development experience may be accepted in lieu of a degree. (Equivalent-experience language present.)

About the Company

Company: SpaceX

Headquarters: Hawthorne, California, United States

SpaceX is focused on developing space technologies to enable human exploration of Mars and beyond. The company is known for its advancements in rocketry and its Starlink satellite constellation, which delivers high-speed internet globally.