Sr. FPGA Engineer

Job Title

Sr. FPGA Engineer

Role Summary

Design, implement, and verify FPGA/CPLD hardware for safety-critical aerospace and ground-vehicle systems. Work as part of an electrical engineering team through design, integration, qualification testing, and production support. This is an onsite role in Cedar Rapids, IA. U.S. Citizens or Green Card holders only.

Experience Level

Senior. See Education Requirements for explicit years-of-experience guidance.

Responsibilities

Primary duties include FPGA/CPLD development, verification, and system integration for high-reliability embedded systems.

• Generate and refine system and hardware requirements.
• Develop RTL, perform synthesis, and create verification testbenches and simulations.
• Perform static timing analysis, power analysis, and timing closure.
• Prototype evaluation, design reviews, and design-to-cost tradeoffs.
• Support qualification testing, system integration, production, and obsolescence activities.
• Document designs and present results in reviews and certification activities.
• Travel up to 25% as required.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience.

• Proven HDL-based FPGA and CPLD design experience.
• Knowledge of digital electronics and circuit design principles; FPGA integration into circuit card designs to ensure electrical integrity.
• Experience with design and analysis tools (timing tools and signal-integrity tools such as HyperLynx).
• Hands-on hardware build, lab test, and system integration experience.
• Experience with Matlab/Simulink for auto-generation of FPGA code.
• Strong problem-solving, judgment, documentation, and communication skills; ability to work both independently and in a team.
• Familiarity with requirements management, configuration management, and problem-reporting tools.

Nice-to-have:

• Interfaces: I2C, SPI, CAN, ARINC-825; memory interfaces (SDRAM, Flash, SRAM); serial interfaces (MIL-STD-1553, ARINC-429, RS-422/485); AFDX (ARINC-664).
• Experience with FPGA vendors and toolchains: Microsemi, Xilinx, Lattice, Altera; Synplify, ModelSim, QuestaSim.
• Familiarity with RTCA/DO-254 hardware development objectives.
• High-speed digital circuit card design experience including part placement, routing, constraints, and signal integrity analysis.
• Experience with UVM testbenches, state machines, and code coverage techniques.

Education Requirements

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) required; Master's degree acceptable. Experience guidance from the source: Bachelor's degree plus ~10–12+ years relevant work, or Master's degree plus ~8+ years relevant work. Minimum training/education listed as BSEE. (Equivalent practical experience not specified.)

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.