RTL Hardware Engineer – Cryptographic Accelerators / FHE

Remote – USA | Contract – 6+ Months

About the Company:

Our client is building the foundational hardware layer for privacy-preserving computation, leveraging Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) to enable secure processing of encrypted data. This is a unique chance to work on groundbreaking silicon that powers next-gen cryptographic workloads.

Role Overview:

We’re looking for an RTL Hardware Engineer to design, implement, and optimize custom hardware blocks for a novel FHE accelerator. You’ll work in a close-knit silicon team to bring new crypto architectures to life, from high-level concept to verified RTL.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and implement RTL designs for compute-intensive cryptographic blocks and data-paths.
• Work from architecture specifications to deliver optimized and scalable RTL.
• Collaborate closely with verification, synthesis, and physical design teams to ensure seamless integration and performance.
• Analyze and optimize for area, performance, power, and timing closure.
• Contribute to microarchitecture definition, design reviews, and documentation.

Ideal Background:

• 5+ years of experience in RTL design using SystemVerilog, Verilog, or similar.
• Strong understanding of digital design principles, pipelining, memory hierarchy, and finite state machines.
• Experience working with high-throughput, low-latency architectures, ideally in crypto, DSP, or accelerator design.
• Familiarity with synthesis and timing analysis flows.
• Comfortable working from architecture down to gate-level handoff.

Nice to Have:

• Exposure to cryptographic algorithms or FHE concepts.
• Experience collaborating with verification and physical design teams across the silicon lifecycle.
• Familiarity with scripting (Python, Perl, or Tcl) to support automation and design workflows.
• Startup or R&D hardware experience.

Contract Details:

• Duration: 6+ months, with strong potential for extension
• Location: Remote – USA
• Engagement: W2, 1099, or Corp-to-Corp

Darwin Recruitment is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.

Reece Waldon