[Permanent position] Senior FPGA prototyping engineer

SiPearl; Grenoble; Hybrid; EUR 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Meal vouchers 60% covered by SiPearl

Health insurance 70% covered by SiPear

Moka.care mental health access

Technical, linguistic and personal dev

BSPCE

Job summary

SiPearl is building an FPGA prototyping platform to validate pre-silicon hardware and firmware. We seek an experienced engineer to design, implement and optimize the FPGA prototyping workflow across HW/SW flows.

You will work on RTL-to-prototype flows, HDL languages, and collaboration with EDA/IP partners, with a strong emphasis on performance, reliability and developer productivity in a fast-growing European team.

Qualifications

• Strong expertise in FPGA development and prototyping on complex platforms.
• Solid knowledge of HDL languages (SystemVerilog, VHDL) and timing constraints (SDC).
• Ability to architect robust solutions and drive continuous improvements.
• Professional proficiency in English in an international environment.
• Strong communication, teamwork and autonomy.
• Scientific rigor, curiosity and problem-solving mindset.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop and continuously improve the FPGA prototyping workflow, integrating it into HW/SW flows.
• Generate, test and debug complex FPGA platforms from RTL, ensuring performance and robustness.
• Develop and integrate hardware and software blocks, plus automation tools and scripts to improve productivity.
• Provide expert-level technical support to internal users and propose scalable solutions.
• Interface with EDA tool vendors and IP providers, driving discussions and tracking resolutions.
• Contribute to technology watch and share best practices across teams.

Skills

FPGA development

HDL languages

SystemVerilog

VHDL

English proficiency

Autonomy

Problem-solving mindset

Job description

About SiPearl…

SiPearl is the European fabless designer of sovereign secure high-performance energy-efficient CPUs for HPC, AI and data centres. These CPUs will help address strategic challenges in the fields of security, defence, medical research, energy, climate and engineering with a reduced environmental footprint.

In June 25, SiPearl completed the design of the most complex CPU ever designed in Europe, Rhea1. Featuring 80 Arm Neoverse V1 cores, with 61 billion transistors, it is currently in production at TSMC. Sipearl CPUs will equip the two first European exascale supercomputers belonging to EuroHPC JU: Rhea1 will be integrated into the JUPITER machine based in Germany and Rhea2 will be part of Alice Recoque in France.

Incubated within the European Processor Initiative (EPI) consortium and seed-funded by the European Union, SiPearl employs almost 200 people in :

• France (Maisons-Laffitte, Grenoble, Massy, Sophia Antipolis),

• Spain (Barcelona)

• and Italy (Bologna)

Following a €130 million Series A, the company has launched its Series B round.

About the role

To validate our first tape-out, we developed an initial prototyping platform, using a smart hybrid approach, connecting a real hardware system development board (socket ready) with a small prototyping FPGA board.

Given the success and eager adoption of this approach by our Firmware team, we decided to think even bigger and build a full stack prototyping and demonstration platform, porting the full complexity of our designs to FPGA prototyping, and enabling the development of the entire FW and SW (BIOS, Kernel or high speed-interfaces like PCIe/DDR/UCIe) pre-silicon!

To tackle that task, we are building an entire new team, who will be using state of the art multi-FPGA prototyping platforms (Ultrascale+ VP1902, the largest FPGAs in the industry), porting and modeling our entire design and connecting it with real hardware.

Your missions

• Design, develop and continuously improve the FPGA prototyping workflow, integrating it into the company-wide HW and SW flows
• Generate, test and debug complex FPGA platforms from RTL, ensuring performance, robustness and maintainability
• Develop and integrate hardware and software blocks, as well as automation tools and scripts to improve productivity and user experience
• Provide expert-level technical support to internal users, analyze complex issues and propose long-term, scalable solutions
• Act as a primary technical interface with EDA tool vendors and IP providers, driving technical discussions and tracking issue resolution
• Contribute to technology watch, evaluate new tools and share best practices across teams

What would make you succeed in this role

• Strong expertise in FPGA development and prototyping on complex platforms
• Solid knowledge of HDL languages (SystemVerilog, VHDL), timing constraints (SDC) and advanced design rules
• Ability to architect robust solutions, take ownership of technical topics and drive continuous improvements
• Professional proficiency in English within an international environment
• Strong communication skills, team spirit and a high level of autonomy
• Scientific rigor, curiosity, adaptability and a strong problem-solving mindset

Dear candidate, even if you consider you do not fulfill all the qualifications mentioned above, please still apply and share with us why you believe you would be a good fit.

Recruitment process

Discovery interview with our Talent Acquisition Partner (30 min)

AssessFirst personality test - no need to worry, there is no wrong or right answer; our goal is to see beyond your resume (45')

2 Technical interviews (1h each)

Interview with one HRBP in order to answer to your last questions (30 min)

Benefits and conditions

• Contract: Permanent Contract

• Benefits: annual bonus*; meal vouchers (60% covered by SiPearl); health insurance (70% covered by SiPearl); illimited access and pre-paid sessions with a practitioner of your choice on our mental health partner app, moka.care; technical, linguistic and personal development training; BSPCE

• Work model: On-Site or Hybrid (2 days/week remote)

• Office: This role is open for our locations in France (Maisons-Laffitte, Massy, Grenoble and Sophia Antipolis), Spain (Castelldelfels - Barcelona); Italy (Bologna)

• Please note that while we do not provide VISA Sponsorship, we are committed to assisting international candidates with the visa application process to the best of our ability.

Are you curious to learn more about us?

• Follow us on LinkedIn to stay updated with our latest news

• Get updated about our recruiting activities: Sipearl careers webpage

• Get to know a bit more about our team culture: Welcome to the jungle

At SiPearl, we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace that thrives on the strength of varied perspectives and backgrounds. We recruit talent based on merit, experience, and alignment with our company's goals and values.