Prototyping Lead

Ecarx Co.; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Ecarx Co. seeks a Prototyping Lead to establish and guide our FPGA-based prototyping and emulation capability for AI SoC designs. You will build and manage the prototyping platform enabling software development, system validation, and performance evaluation before silicon becomes available.

This role blends hands-on FPGA engineering, hardware bring-up, and cross‑team coordination across architecture, design, verification, and software groups to accelerate AI chip readiness.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in FPGA design, prototyping, or emulation.
• Strong RTL experience with Verilog/SystemVerilog.
• Hands-on FPGA lab bring-up and debugging.
• Experience with high-speed interfaces (PCIe, DDR, Ethernet, AXI).
• Bachelor's degree in Electrical/Computer Engineering or related field.
• Proven technical leadership in projects or mentoring engineers.

Responsibilities

• Lead development and deployment of FPGA-based prototyping and emulation platforms.
• Define FPGA prototyping strategy including partitioning, tools, and architecture.
• Drive end-to-end FPGA implementation flow: RTL integration, synthesis, PnR, timing, bitstream.
• Own FPGA lab bring-up, hardware debug, and lab validation.
• Develop prototyping build flows, regression infra, and automation scripts.
• Collaborate with software/firmware to enable early development on FPGA prototypes.
• Support emulation-based verification and acceleration flows.
• Interface with design teams to optimize prototyping efficiency.
• Manage FPGA lab infrastructure and resource planning.
• Mentor junior FPGA engineers and grow the prototyping team.

Skills

FPGA design/prototyping

RTL design (Verilog/SystemVerilog)

Leadership

Prototyping & emulation

Lab bring-up/debug

Scripting (Python/Tcl)

Automation

Education

BSc or higher in Electrical Engineering / Computer Engineering

Tools

Vivado/Quartus

Synplify

Oscilloscopes & logic analyzers

Job description

We are seeking a Prototyping Lead to establish and lead our FPGA-based prototyping and emulation capability for our AI SoC designs. You will build and manage the prototyping platform that enables software development, system validation, and performance evaluation of our AI accelerator chips before silicon availability. This is a hands‑on leadership role combining FPGA engineering, hardware bring‑up, and cross‑team coordination across architecture, design, verification, and software teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and deployment of FPGA-based prototyping and emulation platforms for our AI SoC designs
• Define FPGA prototyping strategy — including partitioning methodology, tool selection, and platform architecture
• Drive end‑to‑end FPGA implementation flow: RTL integration, FPGA partitioning, synthesis, PnR, timing constraints, timing closure, and bitstream generation
• Own FPGA platform bring‑up, hardware debug, and lab validation — working with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and protocol analyzers
• Develop and maintain prototyping build flows, regression infrastructure, and automation scripts
• Collaborate with software and firmware teams to enable early software development on FPGA prototypes
• Work with verification teams to support emulation‑based verification and acceleration flows
• Support performance analysis and architecture validation by enabling representative workloads on FPGA platforms
• Interface with design and architecture teams to understand system requirements and optimize prototyping efficiency
• Manage FPGA lab infrastructure, equipment, and resource planning
• Mentor junior FPGA engineers and build the prototyping team as we scale

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in FPGA design, prototyping, or emulation
• Deep expertise in FPGA implementation methodology — synthesis, PnR, timing constraints, timing closure, and resource optimization
• Strong RTL design and integration skills (Verilog / SystemVerilog)
• Hands‑on experience with FPGA tools (AMD/Xilinx Vivado, Intel Quartus, Synplify, or equivalent)
• Proven experience with FPGA board bring‑up and lab debug (JTAG, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers)
• Experience with high‑speed interfaces — PCIe, DDR, Ethernet, AXI, or similar protocols
• Strong scripting and automation skills (Python, Tcl, Perl, shell)
• Experience working with complex SoC or multi‑FPGA prototyping systems
• Technical leadership experience — leading projects or mentoring engineers
• BSc or higher in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with AI accelerator / GPU / high‑performance compute prototyping
• Experience with emulation systems (Veloce, Palladium, Zebu, or similar)
• Knowledge of AI/ML workloads and neural network architectures
• Experience with partial reconfiguration or dynamic function exchange on FPGAs
• Background in hardware/software co‑design and embedded systems
• Previous experience at semiconductor or AI chip companies
• Experience building and managing a prototyping lab