2027 Internship/Graduate - FPGA Engineering

Qube Research & Technologies; Greater London; On-site; GBP 18,000 - 27,000; Full time

Job summary

Qube Research & Technologies (QRT) invites penultimate or final-year students to join its FPGA engineering team in London for an internship or graduate program starting in 2027. The role concentrates on building ultra-low-latency FPGA-based platforms used in live trading, integrating hardware and software, and advancing verification methods.

You will work with SystemVerilog, C++, and Python to design, implement and test high-performance FPGA solutions, with mentorship from engineers, researchers

Qualifications

• Penultimate or final-year student pursuing a bachelor’s or master’s degree.
• Experience with HDL (SystemVerilog, Verilog or VHDL) is preferred.
• Programming experience in C++ and/or Python.
• Strong foundations in digital logic design and computer architecture.
• Familiarity with FPGA toolchains is useful.
• Good problem-solving and analytical thinking.
• Curious, proactive mindset with ownership of problems.
• Willingness to learn in a fast-paced trading environment.

Responsibilities

• Build production FPGA systems for live trading.
• Work across hardware and software using SystemVerilog, C++ and Python to build low-latency systems.
• Develop and verify new FPGA functionality to improve market data processing and order execution.
• Integrate FPGA components with QRT’s trading infrastructure.
• Analyse performance, latency, and resource utilisation to identify improvements.
• Gain hands-on experience with FPGA hardware, tools and verification workflows.
• Contribute to research and development to extend FPGA capabilities.

Skills

Interest in tech

HDL experience

C++ / Python

Digital logic

FPGA tools

Problem solving

Mindset

Ownership

Education

Penultimate/final year

Bachelor's or Master's degree

Tools

Xilinx Vivado

Intel Quartus

Job description

2027 – Internship or Graduate, FPGA Engineering

Programmes offered:

Final-year internship, penultimate-year internship, some permanent opportunities

Location:

London

Programme duration:

3–6 months, or full-time graduate, starting in 2027

Who qualifies:

Penultimate or final-year students completing a bachelor’s or master’s degree

Qube Research & Technologies (QRT) is a global quantitative and systematic investment manager operating across liquid asset classes and markets worldwide. Our approach to investing is scientific: we bring together data, research, technology and trading expertise to develop and run systematic strategies.

Technology is central to how QRT works. Over the years, we have built a global research and execution platform spanning geographies, asset classes and trading horizons, from ultra-low-latency systems to large-scale research, analytics and risk infrastructure. We invest heavily in engineering, automation and scalable systems because better technology allows us to test ideas faster, operate more reliably and tackle harder problems.

Our internships are designed to give students meaningful experience of that work. You’ll join a team, contribute to real projects and learn from engineers, researchers and traders working on live problems. The environment is technical, collaborative and demanding, with plenty of scope to ask questions, test ideas and take ownership. Strong performance during the internship may lead to consideration for a full-time graduate role.

Your future role at QRT

Throughout the recruitment process, we’ll consider your skills and interests alongside the problems our teams are working on, with the aim of finding the strongest fit.

QRT’s FPGA team builds ultra-low-latency hardware for our trading systems. By implementing custom logic directly on FPGA devices, the team can process market data and execute orders with tight control over latency, throughput and system behaviour.

The work sits at the boundary between hardware and software. We use SystemVerilog, C++ and Python to design, verify and integrate FPGA systems into our wider trading infrastructure. The problems are technically demanding: small design decisions can have measurable consequences, and performance needs to come with reliability.

As an intern or graduate in the FPGA team, you will:

• Build production FPGA systems – Contribute to the design, development and optimisation of FPGA-based platforms used in live trading.

• Work across hardware and software – Use SystemVerilog, C++ and Python to build, test and refine high-performance, low-latency systems.

• Develop and verify new functionality – Implement FPGA features that improve how our systems process market data and execute orders, and build the tests needed to verify them.

• Integrate systems – Work with hardware and software engineers to connect FPGA components with QRT’s broader trading infrastructure.

• Analyse performance – Debug and profile designs, investigating latency, resource utilisation and other constraints to understand where improvements can be made.

• Work with modern FPGA technology – Gain hands‑on experience with FPGA hardware, development tools and verification workflows used in low‑latency trading.

• Explore new approaches – Contribute to research and development aimed at improving the performance and capabilities of our FPGA systems.

Your present skillset

• Interest in technology: You enjoy understanding how systems work and have explored that interest through software or hardware projects, whether academic, personal or hobby-based. Formal Computer Science training is not essential.

• HDL experience: Experience or coursework using an HDL such as SystemVerilog, Verilog or VHDL.

• Programming: Experience with C++ and/or Python.

• Technical foundations: An understanding of digital logic design, computer architecture and high-speed interfaces.

• FPGA tools: Familiarity with FPGA development toolchains such as Xilinx Vivado or Intel Quartus is useful, but not essential.

• Problem solving: You can reason through technical problems methodically, troubleshoot designs and think about trade-offs between performance, resource utilisation and power efficiency.

• Mindset: Curious, proactive and comfortable asking questions. You look for opportunities to understand systems more deeply and improve how they perform.

• Approach: Self-motivated, thoughtful and comfortable taking ownership of a problem.

Interviewing

• Technical Assessment – Selected candidates will complete a technical interview with the relevant team.

• Interviews – Shortlisted candidates will take part in interviews, either on-site or via Microsoft Teams. We’ll explore your technical foundations, how you reason through engineering problems and how you work with others.

QRT is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome diversity as essential to our success. QRT empowers employees to work openly and respectfully to achieve collective success. In addition to professional achievement, we are offering initiatives and programs to enable employees achieve a healthy work-life balance.