Senior / Principal FPGA Engineer

Quest Global; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

Quest Global is seeking a Senior / Principal FPGA Engineer in Edinburgh. The role involves designing and developing innovative FPGA solutions using VHDL, alongside responsibilities like verifying designs and documenting deliverables.

The ideal candidate will have at least 5 years of FPGA development experience, strong analytical skills, and excellent communication abilities. A background in aerospace or defense is desirable. UK citizenship is mandatory for background checks and SC clearance.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in FPGA development using VHDL or Verilog.
• Ability to analyze hardware-level requirements and derive detailed FPGA requirements.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

Responsibilities

• Create innovative VHDL-based designs.
• Verify FPGA designs and document deliverables.
• Coordinate day-to-day technical activities.

Skills

FPGA development (VHDL or Verilog)

Mentor Graphics FPGA tools

Xilinx / Intel design flows

FPGA version control

High-speed serial protocols

Linux and scripting

Technical report writing

Education

Honours degree in Electronics Engineering or STEM

Tools

HDL Designer

ModelSim / Questa

Precision

Job description

Role Overview

The Senior / Principal FPGA engineer would be responsible for design and development of FPGA designs using VHDL and verifying designs using VHDL or System Verilog.

Job Responsibilities

• Creating innovative and robust VHDL-based designs
• Documenting and recording deliverables
• Verifying FPGA designs
• Ensuring configuration management/keeping designs under revision control
• Providing progress reports

Mandatory Skills & Qualifications

• At least 5 years’ experience developing FPGA using VHDL or Verilog
• Experienced with Mentor Graphics FPGA development tools including HDL Designer, ModelSim / Questa and Precision
• Familiar with Xilinx / Intel (Altera) / Microsemi (Actel) design flows (ISE, Vivado, Quartus) and third‑party synthesis tools
• Experience specifying timing and area constraints for efficient FPGA Placement and Routing
• Independent verification using VHDL
• Experience with FPGA requirements capture and requirements management tools
• Good understanding of FPGA version control and revision control software
• Experience making technical decisions and mitigating technical risk for FPGA design activities
• Ability to coordinate day‑to‑day technical activities, liaising closely with the Project Engineering Lead / Lead FPGA engineer & other disciplines
• Excellent communication (oral & written) & interpersonal skills
• Ability to analyse system and/or hardware level requirements and derive detailed FPGA requirements
• Debugging FPGA designs and supporting integration & verification at hardware and system level
• Experience with high‑speed serial protocols and implementations
• Linux and scripting experience
• Experience writing technical reports / documentation

Desirable

• Development of real‑time, embedded, safety‑critical FPGA, preferably in accordance with RTCA/DO-254 DAL A or B
• Independent verification using SystemVerilog / UVM
• Relevant experience in the aerospace or defence industry
• Experience of embedded processor cores (e.g. ARM) in FPGA designs
• Familiarity with latest FPGA device families
• Practical experience with agile methodology

Location

• Edinburgh, UK

Qualifications

• Honours degree or equivalent in Electronics Engineering or another STEM‑based subject
• UK citizenship is mandatory to be able to clear background checks and obtain SC clearance
• Current valid SC clearance would be an advantage