FPGA Engineer - Submarines

Rolls-Royce; Glasgow; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in the nuclear propulsion sector is seeking a qualified FPGA Engineer to join their dynamic firmware development team. You will be involved in developing high integrity firmware applications using state-of-the-art toolsets within a safety-critical environment. This role offers excellent professional development opportunities, training, and a competitive salary, as well as a supportive, inclusive culture that values your contributions and growth.

Benefits

Competitive salary and bonus

Employee support assistance

Employee discounts

Qualifications

• Experience in programmable logic device design.
• Familiarity with real-time systems.
• Awareness of IEC62566 safety-critical development constraints.

Responsibilities

• Develop high-level firmware requirements using DOORS.
• Write VHDL and Verilog HDL code.
• Simulate HDL designs using Mentor Graphics QuestaSIM.

Skills

Digital electronics design

Programmable hardware design

Problem solving

Communication skills

Education

Degree in Electronics Engineering

HND in Computer Science or related

Job description

Job Description

Field-programmable gate array ( FPGA) Engineer

Full Time

Glasgow or Derby

Why Rolls-Royce?

Our submarines business is responsible for the design, manufacture, supply and through-life support of nuclear propulsion-related products and systems in support of the Royal Navy's submarine fleet. You can find out more about the amazing projects that we are working on here .

To sustain our capability and products for the next 50 years, we are engaged in an active programme of research and development into control system technologies of the future. We are also leading the development of industrial process control systems for a range of in-house advanced manufacturing techniques and chemical processes used to build our reactor cores and components.

A role within Submarines will offer you the opportunity to work across all phases of the product life cycle, solving technical challenges across a wide range of digital, software, programmable hardware and electronics technologies, systems, and applications. You will be able to build the career you desire as an engineer, technical specialist, or technical leader. We want you to maximise your potential and will support your technical development through coaching, experience, and training. This will include professional mentoring to start your journey towards becoming a chartered engineer or to continue your professional development.

About The Role:

You will work within our safety critical firmware development team across all design phases of the firmware lifecycle. The team uses agile SCRUM methods to develop high integrity firmware applications adopting the latest state-of-the-art toolsets. Training will be provided where required to equip you with the skills necessary to develop requirements, architectures, designs and HDL code for controls firmware applications essential for the protection and monitoring of nuclear propulsion plant.

In addition, you will be engaged in the development of bespoke software toolsets in support of the deliverable equipment firmware. The applications you will be involved in are leading-edge solutions addressing the challenges of meeting the highest safety integrity requirements. Within the firmware team there are opportunities to develop your career in technical management, team leadership or as a technical specialist. The team offers the opportunity to become an expert in the use of state-of-the-art toolsets.

What we offer

We offer excellent development, a competitive salary and exceptional benefits. These include bonus, employee support assistance and employee discounts.

Join us and we’ll provide an environment where you can be yourself. An inclusive, digital-first culture that invests in you, gives you a platform for continuous learning, and access to an incredible breadth and depth of opportunities to grow your career.

Your needs are as unique as you are. Hybrid working is a way in which our people can balance their time between the office, home or another remote location. It’s a locally managed and flexed informal discretionary arrangement. As a minimum we’re all expected to attend the workplace for collaboration and other specific reasons, on average three days per week.

What you will be doing:

You will follow a DevOps-based firmware development lifecycle to deliver customer requirements by:

• Developing high-level firmware requirements using DOORS
• Creating architectural designs
• Defining low level requirements and detailed designs
• Writing VHDL and Verilog HDL code using Sigasi Studio
• Simulating HDL designs at unit, integration and system level using Mentor Graphics QuestaSIM
• Undertaking synthesis, place and route and static timing analysis using Synopsis Synplify, targeting Xilinx FPGAs
• Developing Python scripts for process automation
• Operating continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) toolsets
• Managing change control and configuration management using GIT
• You will be engaged in problem solving,
• You will be required to demonstrate process adherence and solution correctness,
• You will be expected to engage in continued improvement of our firmware development process, for cost and timescale reduction and quality improvement,
• You will support process and technical audits,
• You will liaise with the Software, Systems and Electronics teams,
• You will manage suppliers, including scoping packages of work and reviewing their deliveries.

Who we are looking for:

At Rolls-Royce we embrace agility, are bold, pursue collaboration and seek simplicity in everything we do. These principles form our values and behaviours and are an essential component of our assessment process and are fundamental qualities that we seek for all roles.

To be successful in this role you will need to:

• Qualified to Degree, or HND level : In Electronics Engineering, Computer Science, or related discipline,
• Self-motivated and enthusiastic to become familiar with new techniques and tools,
• Experienced and talented programmable hardware engineer.
• Experienced in digital electronics design,
• Experienced in programmable logic device design,
• Experienced in real-time systems
• Awareness of safety-critical development constraints (e.g. IEC62566)

Behavioural Competencies

• Customer focus
• Priority setting
• Interpersonal and communication skills
• Conflict management
• Timely decision making
• Planning and organising own and others’ work
• Dealing with ambiguity

We’re an equal opportunities employer. We’re committed to developing a diverse workforce and an inclusive working environment. We believe that people from different backgrounds and cultures give us different perspectives. And the more perspectives we have, the more successful we’ll be. By building a culture of respect and appreciation, we give everyone who works here the opportunity to realise their full potential.

You can learn more about our global inclusion strategy at careers.rolls-royce.com

To work for Rolls-Royce Submarines you need to hold a Security Check (SC) clearance without any caveats to that clearance. Rolls-Royce will support the application for Security Clearance if you don’t currently already have this in place. Due to the nature of work the business conducts and the protection of certain assets, you must hold a UK nationality. Any dual nationals will require additional scrutiny and background checks prior to commencing work with RRSL.

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Job Category Electrical and Electronics Posting Date 03 Jun 2025; 00:06 Posting End Date