FPGA Engineer

Location: United Kingdom (please confirm specific location)
Salary: Competitive
Industry: Defence / Electronics

Overview of the role:
We are working with an established electronics and defence technology business with a strong portfolio of advanced hardware and software products. They are looking to hire an FPGA Engineer to take full ownership of FPGA development across their product range, spanning sectors including video processing, RF signal processing, and System-on-Chip architecture. This is a full-time, permanent position embedded within a close-knit FPGA and wider engineering team, collaborating directly with System and SoC architects, and reporting into the FPGA Engineering Manager.

Requirements

Essential:

• A Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline
• At least 5 years of substantive, hands-on experience in FPGA and digital design
• A proven and demonstrable track record in complex FPGA design and verification, with strong proficiency in VHDL and/or Verilog
• A comprehensive understanding of the end-to-end FPGA development flow, including confident use of industry-standard toolchains such as Xilinx Vivado, Intel Quartus, and ModelSim/QuestaSim
• Solid experience tackling high-speed digital design challenges, including timing closure and signal integrity
• The ability to produce clean, well-structured HDL code alongside clear and thorough technical documentation
• Working knowledge of TCL scripting and its application within FPGA development workflows
• Hands-on experience with System-on-Chip devices, such as Zynq UltraScale+, and a good understanding of embedded processing cores

Required / Highly Preferred:

• Practical experience with scripting languages, particularly Python or Tcl, in an engineering context
• A solid understanding of video protocols and associated data formats, including MIPI and SDI
• Experience in circuit design and schematic capture, or a strong working knowledge of the discipline
• Proficiency with modelling and simulation tools, particularly MATLAB
• A working knowledge of software development, ideally in C++, to support cross-disciplinary collaboration
• Experience applying High Level Synthesis (HLS) techniques within FPGA development
• A background in designing to defined safety integrity levels, with familiarity of Functional Safety Standards such as IEC 61508 or ISO 26262
• Current UK Security Clearance at SC or DV level, or a confirmed eligibility and willingness to undergo the vetting process

Beneficial:

• Exposure to GPU computing or AI development, particularly where applied within signal processing or embedded defence environments
• A background in defence, aerospace, or another high-reliability engineering sector where rigorous standards and complex system requirements are the norm

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

Oliver Stewart