FPGA Engineer (AU)

DroneShield Group Pty Ltd; Council of the City of Sydney; On-site; AUD 100,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading drone technology company in Sydney is seeking an experienced FPGA Engineer to develop and expand drone recognition algorithms using software-defined radios. Candidates should have a degree in Electronic Engineering and 2+ years of relevant experience, with strong skills in Verilog, digital signal processing, and FPGA tools. This position offers the chance to work with cutting-edge technology in a rapidly growing field.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of experience working within an established engineering team.
• Experience with high-speed digital design.
• Understanding of RF transmission protocols is desirable.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement FPGA-based systems for real-time Digital Signal Processing.
• Research and develop optimized algorithms for DSP, ML, and statistics.
• Optimise DroneShield’s technology for accuracy and performance.

Skills

Programming in Verilog

Debugging in VHDL

C/C++ firmware writing

Experience with FPGA tools (Vivado, Quartus)

Digital Signal Processing background

Familiarity with Python

Education

BS/BE degree in Electronic Engineering

Tools

Vivado

Quartus

Vitis

Job description

Work with cutting edge technology, making the world a safer and more secure place. DroneShield (ASX:DRO) offers an opportunity to solve some of world’s most challenging technical problems in the Electronic Warfare, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, RF sensing, Sensor Fusion and distributed systems. Working with high profile customers across militaries, government agencies, airports, critical infrastructure, law enforcement and many others.

With one of the largest listed defence company market capitalisations in Australia and having raised approximately $250m in 2024 alone, DroneShield is undergoing hypergrowth stage, fuelled by rapidly increasing use of drones for nefarious applications, from battlefield, to terrorism, to contraband delivery and commercial espionage.

This role is in the DroneShield Sydney headquarters in Sydney CBD. There are approximately 300 staff based in the 4,000sqm facility today, scheduled to grow to approximately 300 staff by end of 2025. Overseas on the ground presence includes Virginia (USA), Denmark, Germany and Dubai, as well as distributors in over 70 countries globally.

About the role

DroneShield is seeking a FPGA Engineer with relevant experience to join the team in Sydney, Australia. The position will report to the Team lead, FPGA. The core challenge of the role is the development and expansion of our drone recognition and disruption algorithms using software-defined radios (SDRs). Implementing complex Digital Signal Processing algorithms into production grade firmware.

Responsibilities, Duties and Expectations

• Design, development, document and implementation of FPGA-based systems to support real-time Digital Signal Processing.
• Research and development of highly optimised RTL implementations of DSP, ML and statistical algorithms.
• Optimise the core of DroneShield’s technology for accuracy, performance, stability, and maintenance.
• Scale the R&D, development, verification, and validation infrastructure.

Qualifications, Experience and Skills

• BS/BE degree in Electronic Engineering, similar technical field of study or equivalent practical experience.
• 2+ years of qualified experience working within an established team.
• Strong experience with programming, debugging, and verifying Verilog, VHDL or SystemVerilog.
• Strong Experience using and designing automated Verification and Validation frameworks.
• Experience with synthesis and complex timing closure on resource constrained FPGAs.
• Experience in high-speed digital design and building customized IP cores.
• FPGA development experience using FPGA software tools such as Vivado (preferable), Quartus, Vitis etc.
• Experience with designing and implementing high-throughput, low-latency and fully pipelined FPGA architectures.
• Experience writing C/C++ firmware for FPGA modules along with familiarity with scripting languages (Python Preferable).
• Experience working in a Linux environment.
• Experience working with PCB schematics, board bring-ups and debugging hardware is highly desirable.
• Strong background and experience in Digital Signal Processing is highly desirable.
• A general RF background and knowledge of RF transmission protocols and general principals is desirable.
• Understanding or working knowledge of Machine Learning (ML) concepts within the scope of FPGA implementation would be ideal.

Note for recruitment agencies: we do not accept floated candidates from external recruiters unless they were instructed to do so.