Senior FPGA IP Solutions Engineer – Robotics Technology

326 Altera Semiconductor Technology UK Limited; Marlow; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Altera seeks a Senior FPGA IP Solutions Engineer in Marlow, UK, to design, verify, and deliver high-performance FPGA IP and HAL interfaces for robotics and industrial automation. You will own RTL IP, integration with software stacks, and drive timing closure within a small, highly technical team.

You will work with Quartus Prime, Platform Designer, and modern verification tools to ensure robust IP, system compatibility, and reference designs for robotics platforms, including ROS2-based stacks.

Qualifications

• Min 10+ years experience with BSc / MSc (or equivalent) in Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field.
• Strong production experience in RTL design (Verilog/SystemVerilog) targeting FPGAs.
• Hands-on experience with RTL verification and simulation (ModelSim/Questa, VCS, or equivalent).
• Proven ability to close timing and optimize resource utilization on real FPGA designs.
• Working knowledge of Quartus Prime and Platform Designer (or equivalent).
• Experience debugging FPGA designs using on-chip instrumentation and development kits.
• Familiarity with CI tools such as Jenkins and GitHub.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and optimize high-performance soft IP in Verilog/SystemVerilog for robotics and industrial solutions.
• Define and maintain low-level HAL / driver APIs exposing IP capabilities to software.
• Develop RTL for sensor ingestion, pre-processing, fusion, and DSP algorithms mapped to FPGA fabric.
• Apply FPGA architecture awareness to drive resource allocation, Fmax, and power/performance trade-offs.
• Integrate IP into system designs using Quartus Prime and Platform Designer.
• Verify, simulate, and timing-closure of IP and subsystems; write testbenches.
• Collaborate with software, systems, and applications engineers on HW/SW co-design and platform integration.

Skills

RTL design

Verilog/SystemVerilog

FPGA architecture

RTL verification & simulation

Quartus Prime

Platform Designer

Python scripting

CI/CD tooling

Timing closure

SignalTap

Education

BSc / MSc in Electrical/Electronic Engineering or related

Tools

Quartus Prime

Platform Designer

ModelSim/Questa

VCS

SignalTap

GitHub

Jenkins

Job description

Job Details: Job Description: Altera is seeking a talented Senior FPGA IP Solutions Engineer to join the Robotics Technology Group in Marlow, UK. This hands-on role focuses on the design, verification, and delivery of high-performance FPGA IP and solutions that enable next-generation robotics and industrial automation systems. Working within a small, highly technical team, you will develop reusable RTL IP for sensor ingestion, data pre-processing, fusion pipelines, and real-time compute accelerators for robotics use cases. Your primary ownership is the RTL IP and the low-level software interface (HAL / driver API) that exposes it—covering micro-architecture, RTL implementation, simulation, timing closure, and Quartus Prime / Platform Designer integration. You will also maintain a clear awareness of how that IP fits into the broader system and solution stack, collaborating with software and systems engineers on reference designs and customer-facing robotics platforms. This role emphasizes deep FPGA IP and HAL craftsmanship—high-performance RTL, verification and simulation, and clean low-level APIs—while requiring enough system-level awareness to integrate cleanly into end-to-end robotics solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• FPGA IP Design & Architecture Design, implement, and optimize high-performance soft IP in Verilog/SystemVerilog for robotics and industrial solutions
• Define and maintain low-level HAL / driver APIs that expose IP capabilities to embedded and host software
• Develop RTL for sensor ingestion, pre-processing, fusion, and mathematical / DSP algorithms mapped efficiently to FPGA fabric
• Apply strong FPGA architecture awareness to drive resource allocation (ALMs, DSP, memory), Fmax, and power/performance trade-offs
• Integrate IP into system designs using Quartus Prime and Platform Designer (Avalon / AXI interconnects, streaming and memory-mapped fabrics), with awareness of full-stack solution integration
• Verification, Simulation & Timing Closure Write and maintain testbenches; perform functional simulation and regression of IP and subsystems
• Drive static timing analysis (STA), timing closure, clock-domain crossing (CDC) correctness, and constraint quality
• Debug designs through simulation, SignalTap / on-chip debug, and lab bring-up as required
• Contribute to design examples, simulation models, and technical documentation for internal and customer use
• Design Infrastructure & Delivery Work effectively within engineering infrastructure including Perforce, GitHub, Jenkins, and TeamCity
• Support continuous integration, regression flows, and release quality for IP and reference designs
• Collaborate with software, systems, and applications engineers on HW/SW co-design and platform integration, including robotics software stacks where applicable (e.g. ROS2)
• Support platform bring-up, validation, and resolution of customer or internal technical issues

Minimum Qualifications

• Min 10 + Years experience with BSc / MSc (or equivalent) in Electrical/Electronic Engineering (EEE), Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline
• Strong production experience in RTL design (Verilog and/or SystemVerilog) targeting FPGAs
• Hands-on experience with RTL verification and simulation (e.g. ModelSim/Questa, VCS, or equivalent)
• Proven ability to close timing and optimize resource utilization on real FPGA designs
• Working knowledge of Quartus Prime and Platform Designer (or equivalent FPGA toolchain and system integration flows)
• Experience debugging FPGA designs using on-chip instrumentation (e.g. SignalTap Logic Analyzer) and hands-on bring-up and debug on development kits and physical boards
• Familiarity with modern engineering infrastructure such as Perforce and/or GitHub, and CI systems such as Jenkins and/or TeamCity
• Strong analytical, debug, and problem-solving skills, with clear written and verbal communication

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience developing high-performance, reusable FPGA soft IP (streaming pipelines, DSP, interconnect, or compute accelerators)
• Deep understanding of FPGA architecture, pipelining, CDC, constraints, and STA best practices
• Experience with sensor data ingestion, pre-processing, sensor fusion, and/or mapping mathematical algorithms into hardware
• Prior exposure to robotics systems and robotics software stacks (e.g. ROS / ROS2) is a strong plus, enabling closer alignment of FPGA IP capabilities with end-application requirements
• Experience with motor control topics (e.g. FOC, PWM generation, encoders/resolvers, current/torque loops, or real-time motion control on FPGA) is a plus
• Scripting experience (Tcl, Python, and/or Perl) for automation of build, simulation, and timing flows
• Familiarity with Avalon and/or AXI protocols, low-level HAL / driver APIs, and HW/SW integration with embedded processors or accelerators

Job Type: Regular Shift: Shift 1 (United Kingdom)

Primary Location: Marlow, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom

Additional Locations: Basingstoke - UK

Posting Statement: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, religious creed, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, military and veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other characteristic protected by local law, regulation, or ordinance.

About Altera

Altera: Accelerating Innovators Altera provides leadership programmable solutions that are easy-to-use and deploy in applications from cloud to edge, offering limitless AI possibilities. Our end-to-end broad portfolio of products including FPGAs, CPLDs, Intellectual Property, development tools, System on Modules, SmartNICs and IPUs provide the flexibility to accelerate innovation. Altera is helping to shape the future through pioneering innovation that unlocks extraordinary possibilities for everyone on the planet.