Principal Design Team Leader

AccelerComm Ltd; Southampton; On-site; GBP 110,000 - 145,000; Full time

Job summary

AccelerComm Ltd. is seeking a Principal Design Team Leader to steer the hardware design of 5G base station and space-qualified IP. You will guide RTL/ASIC/FPGA development, drive delivery, and ensure robust verification, with a focus on power efficiency and performance.

The role requires hands-on leadership, collaboration with cross-functional teams, and strategic input to roadmap decisions. You will mentor engineers and shape the technical path for next-gen devices.

Qualifications

• Proven track record of leading high-performing teams.
• Expert RTL design knowledge (Verilog/SystemVerilog) for ASIC/FPGA.
• Strong delivery of digital designs for ASIC/FPGA.
• Experience optimizing timing and hardware resources for high-throughput processing.
• Proficient with EDA tools for simulation and synthesis.
• Familiar with agile and waterfall design lifecycles.
• Knowledge of C++/SystemC for design modelling.
• Understanding of multi-disciplinary system architecture.
• Experience with UVM verification techniques.
• Experience with high-speed interfaces (AMBA, PCI-E, JESD).

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic vision to inform technical decision-making and planning at a company level, working with Algorithm, System Architecture and Software teams.
• Take responsibility for the successful and timely delivery of projects by providing technical leadership.
• Provide managerial leadership to build knowledge and support the team development.
• Work closely with the exec team to translate product requirements into hardware team deliverables.
• Support discussions with customers during presales and product development.
• Oversee the implementation of designs targeting both FPGA and ASIC using industry standard techniques, including the creation of UVM based testbenches.
• Lead AccelerComm's engineering methodology, processes, and design techniques, integrating AI where possible.
• Nurture professional growth of team members through regular mentoring, coaching, and feedback.

Skills

Team leadership

RTL design

ASIC/FPGA delivery

Timing/Power optimization

EDA tools

Project management (Agile/Waterfall)

C++/SystemC modelling

UVM verification

High-speed interfaces

System architecture

Tools

EDA tools

Job description

Principal Design Team Leader

Department: Hardware

Employment Type: Permanent

Location: Southampton, UK

Description

As the Principal Design Team Leader at AccelerComm, you will be working on 5G base stations on board satellites. This revolutionary technology is at the leading edge of non-terrestrial communications, and will underpin the next generation of mobile standards giving complete coverage to the globe. AccelerComm develop the baseband signal processing technology, using hardware acceleration to generate world-leading error resilience, capacity and power efficiency. The Principal Design Team Leader will take a leading role in shaping the technical roadmap for extending the power efficiency for the latest generation space-qualified devices, and then delivering this technology to our customers.

We are looking for a person with a proven track record of team leadership and delivering complex IP, who has a real interest in all aspects of the Intellectual Property development life cycle.

This is a hands-on role requiring exceptional team leadership skills alongside technical skills to drive the design, quality, and delivery of Layer 1 IP. This role will play a pivotal part in the growth of AccelerComm and our product portfolio

Key Responsibilities

• Provide strategic vision to inform technical decision-making and planning at a company level , working with colleagues from Algorithm, System Architecture and Software teams.
• Take responsibility for the successful and timely delivery of projects by providing technical leadership
• Provide managerial leadership to build knowledge and support the team development
• Work closely with the exec team to translate product requirements into hardware team deliverables
• Support discussions with customers during presales and product development
• Oversee the implementation of designs targeting both FPGA and ASIC using industry standard techniques, including the creation of UVM based testbenches
• Lead AccelerComm's engineering methodology, processes, and design techniques, integrating AI where possible.
• Nurture professional growth of team members through regular mentoring, coaching, and feedback

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• Track record of building and leading high performing collaborative teams
• Expert knowledge of RTL design (Verilog, SystemVerilog) for complex ASIC and FPGA products
• A strong skillset in delivery of digital designs for ASIC and FPGA
• Optimisation of timing and hardware resources for high throughput data or signal processing applications. Experience in power management techniques, synthesis and timing analysis
• Expert user of EDA tools for simulation and synthesis
• Knowledge and appreciation of project management methodologies across the design lifecycle including agile and waterfall, requirements capture and traceability.

• Knowledge of communications signal processing algorithms (such as error correction, equalisation, channel estimation, beamforming)
• Understanding of UVM verification techniques or practical experience using UVM for IP verification
• Experience with high speed interfaces on and off chip such as AMBA, PCI-E or JESD
• Understanding of using C++/SystemC for design modelling and integration
• Experience in Technology Readiness Models
• Understanding of system architecture of a multi-disciplinary team project