Principal FPGA Engineer

Thales; West of England; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Significant bonus

Pension plan

Private healthcare

Relocation support

Career development

Job summary

Thales UK is seeking a Principal FPGA Engineer to lead firmware development across hardware and software interfaces in a hybrid setting. The role involves delivering on key defence and ISR programmes with strong customer engagement and rigorous verification.

You will drive firmware architecture, work with SystemVerilog/VHDL and toolchains, and contribute to process improvements in development workflows. A relevant engineering degree and security clearance will be essential.

Qualifications

• Strong communications, verbal and written, and an engineering degree with membership of a professional body.
• Experience leading firmware design and architecture in safety-critical environments is preferred.
• Experience interfacing with customers and stakeholders on firmware/FPGA development.

Responsibilities

• Lead firmware development and deliver projects to time, cost and quality targets.
• Verify firmware using HDL and HLS methods and develop test benches.
• Collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams across systems engineering.

Skills

Firmware leadership

FPGA design

SystemVerilog

C++

VHDL

DOORS

ModelSim/QuestaSim

PCIe

Ethernet

AXI4

Education

Degree in engineering (BEng, MEng, EngD, PhD)

Chartered status or working towards

Tools

IBM DOORS

MATLAB

Job description

Location: Bristol, United Kingdom

Thales is a global technology leader with more than 83,000 employees on five continents. With over 7,500 people in the UK, operating across defence, space, aerospace, and digital security, we help build a future we can all trust. Thales supports the security and stability of our nation by providing extraordinary technology to our customers, as well as delivering social value to the UK with our products and services.

Principal FPGA Engineer

Location: Crawley, Reading or Bristol - Hybrid

Thales Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) UK is a principal supplier of UAS, EW and Radar equipment to the UK armed forces, as well as an exporter of these capabilities worldwide.

ISR is a highly complex product development environment, focusing on delivering cutting edge products including:

• Digital Radar Electronic Support Measures (RESM) that provides situational awareness and identification of threats even in busy electronic transmission environments
• Radar Electronic Countermeasures (RECM) that can protect assets by denying tactical advantage and distracting incoming threats.

We're recruiting for a Principal FPGA Engineer as part of a sustained expansion of the ISR team due to key programme awards in Electronic Warfare.

We are looking for successful candidates to have demonstrable experience of Firmware within safety critical environments, defence experience is advantageous but not an essential requirement. You will ideally have experience interfacing with external customers as well as internal stakeholders and have held responsibility for firmware/FPGA development within complex systems.

The key responsibilities will including:

• Lead firmware development and deliver firmware projects to agreed time, cost and quality
• Verify firmware using Hardware Verification Languages or Hardware Description languages
• Design firmware using Hardware Description Languages
• Enhancement of firmware related processes (documenting, scripting, reporting, process automation)
• Working closely with multi-disciplinary teams

Desired Knowledge, Qualifications And Experience

Strong communications, verbally and in writing with A relevant degree (BEng, MEng, EngD, PhD) and a membership or fellowship of a professional engineering body preferably with or working towards chartered status.

• Experience Leading Firmware design/architecture
• Verification Test bench architecture with System Verilog or C++
• Verification Methodology: Advanced VHDL verification or OSVVM/UVVM
• Requirements Management: IBM Rationale DOORS
• Simulation of designs using simulator tool: Mentor Graphics Modelsim / Questasim
• Digital electronic design in hardware development languages: VHDL and either Verilog or System Verilog
• Implementation of complex designs using any vendor specific development tools
• Technologies: PCIe, Ethernet, Serial Comms, AXI4
• Object Orientated design Techniques
• Image processing techniques and algorithms
• Algorithm development using development tool: MatLab

Security Clearance Statement

This role will require SC Clearance. It would be advantageous if currently held, however, if not currently held, it is a requirement that the successful applicant will undergo, achieve, and maintain SC Clearance. Please visit the UKSV website for further guidance

To be eligible for full SC, you generally need to have resided in the UK for the last 5 years. In some circumstances, a minimum of 3 years' residence in the UK over the last 5 years may be accepted, with additional overseas checks.

For further details of the evidence required to apply for Baseline and Security Clearance please refer to the National Security Vetting (NSV) Agency - United Kingdom Security Vetting - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Your career at Thales UK

Future opportunities will allow you to discover other domains or sites. You will be able to evolve and grow your Competencies in different areas:

• Room and attention to personal development
• Build your talents in another domain of Thales Group, discovering new products, new customers, new country or go to a more complex Solution
• Choose between a technical expertise or a leadership path
• Build an international career within a leading Engineering Group

What We Can Offer

We are committed to giving you opportunities to be your best. We believe in embracing the passion and potential of our people, and to achieve this we offer market leading training, development and experiences, along with the opportunity to be mentored and coached by some of the smartest minds in the industry. We hire from within as our first priority, so you'll have a myriad of opportunities within our diverse, global organisation.

Our packages will include significant bonus, a strong pension contribute, private healthcare, development focused targets and relocation support can be provided if required along with a variety of learning, development and career enhancement opportunities. Further support can be provided towards academic and membership attainments.

At Thales, we ensure equal opportunities, pay and working conditions for all. The benefits we offer include private medical insurance, buying or selling annual leave, cycle to work schemes, employee discounts, paid volunteering day, stocks and shares, annual bonus and much more depending on the role. Read more about our benefits here.

We are committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued for who they are and the unique strengths they bring. Discover more about our programmes, employee networks, wellbeing policies, and inclusive features here.