Systems Engineer, Digital Payload

Viasat; Greater London; On-site; GBP 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Viasat in the United Kingdom is seeking an experienced Digital Payload Systems Engineer to own end-to-end digital payload architecture, performance, and verification. You will lead architecture trade studies for FPGA/ASIC, define budgets, and drive cross-functional delivery.

You’ll mentor engineers, contribute to technical standards, and communicate risks to program leadership. This role requires deep systems engineering expertise and a proven ability to solve complex problems across hardware,

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Physics, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related technical field, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years in systems engineering, digital payload development, FPGA or ASIC based systems, aerospace or mission-critical contexts.
• Ability to define ambiguous technical problems and drive resolution across teams.
• Experience owning payload/system budgets for performance, latency, throughput, power, timing, margin, and risk.
• Deep experience with requirements development, decomposition, allocation, traceability, and verification closure.
• Full lifecycle systems engineering knowledge from concept through integration and readiness.
• Significant FPGA/ASIC architecture/implementation experience.
• Strong foundation in DSP, high-speed interfaces, and payload data path architecture.
• Proficiency with VHDL, Verilog, SystemVerilog or equivalent HDL.
• Understanding SERDES, transceivers, timing closure, high-speed link bring-up.
• Ability to influence technical outcomes without direct authority.
• Strong communication for design reviews, risk discussions, and forums.
• Experience mentoring engineers and improving practices.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end digital payload system performance, architecture, requirements, and verification strategy.
• Lead architecture definition and trade studies for FPGA, ASIC, DSP, high-speed I/O, clocking, and payload processing.
• Define and resolve complex system-level problems across hardware, firmware, software, RF, integration, and test teams.
• Drive design decisions for beamforming, channelization, regenerative payloads, and DVB/3GPP standards.
• Own technical budgets, margins, assumptions, risks, and analytical models for program decisions.
• Develop and maintain SRDs, TRDs, interface specs, trade studies, and verification plans.
• Lead requirements decomposition, allocation, traceability, and burndown across subsystems.
• Support lifecycle reviews: SRR, PDR, CDR, test readiness, operational readiness.
• Define system-level verification/validation with integration and test teams.
• Provide leadership on interfaces, timing, throughput, resources, and payload behavior.
• Communicate recommendations, risks, and tradeoffs to leadership.
• Mentor engineers and improve digital payload development practices.

Skills

System engineering

Digital payload development

FPGA

ASIC

DSP

Verilog/SystemVerilog/VHDL

Technical leadership

Requirements management

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Physics, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related technical field

Tools

VHDL

Verilog

SystemVerilog

Job description

About us

One team. Global challenges. Infinite opportunities. At Viasat, we’re on a mission to deliver connections with the capacity to change the world. For more than 35 years, Viasat has helped shape how consumers, businesses, governments and militaries around the globe communicate. We’re looking for people who think big, act fearlessly, and create an inclusive environment that drives positive impact to join our team.

What you’ll do

We are seeking an experienced Digital Payload Systems Engineer to provide technical leadership for complex digital space systems. This role owns end-to-end digital payload architecture, system performance, requirements, technical budgets, verification strategy, and long-term payload evolution.

The successful candidate will serve as a senior technical authority across FPGA and ASIC based digital systems, independently defining complex problems, driving architecture decisions, coordinating cross-functional execution, and mentoring other engineers. This role requires deep subject matter expertise, strong systems judgment, and the ability to influence technical outcomes across programs without direct authority.

The day-to-day

• Own end-to-end digital payload system performance, architecture, requirements, and verification strategy.
• Lead architecture definition and trade studies for FPGA, ASIC, DSP, high-speed I/O, clocking, and payload processing systems.
• Define and resolve complex system-level problems across hardware, firmware, software, RF, integration, and test teams.
• Drive design decisions for beamforming, channelization, regenerative payloads, and standards-based implementations including DVB-S2, DVB-S2X, DVB-S2R, and 3GPP.
• Own technical budgets, margin posture, assumptions, risks, and analytical models supporting program decisions.
• Develop and maintain key technical artifacts, including SRDs, TRDs, interface specifications, trade studies, and verification plans.
• Lead requirements decomposition, allocation, traceability, and burndown across subsystem teams.
• Support major lifecycle reviews including SRR, PDR, CDR, test readiness, and operational readiness reviews.
• Define system-level verification and validation strategies with integration and test teams.
• Provide technical leadership on interfaces, timing, throughput, resource utilization, high-speed data movement, and payload processing behavior.
• Communicate technical recommendations, risks, and tradeoffs to engineering and program leadership.
• Mentor engineers and help improve systems engineering practices, standards, and digital payload development processes.

What you’ll need

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Physics, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related technical field, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of relevant experience in systems engineering, digital payload development, FPGA or ASIC based systems, aerospace, space, or mission-critical systems.
• Demonstrated ability to independently define ambiguous technical problems, select appropriate methods, and drive resolution across teams.
• Proven experience owning payload or system-level technical budgets for performance, latency, throughput, power, timing, resources, margin, and risk.
• Deep experience with requirements development, decomposition, allocation, traceability, and verification closure.
• Strong understanding of full lifecycle systems engineering from concept definition through integration, verification, and operational readiness.
• Significant FPGA and ASIC architecture or implementation experience.
• Strong technical foundation in DSP, communication systems, high-speed digital interfaces, and payload data path architecture.
• Proficiency with VHDL, Verilog, SystemVerilog, or equivalent hardware description languages.
• Deep understanding of SERDES, transceivers, clocking architectures, synchronization, timing closure, high-speed link bring-up, and lab debugging.
• Ability to influence technical outcomes across multidisciplinary teams without direct authority.
• Strong communication skills for senior-level design reviews, risk discussions, and technical decision forums.
• Experience mentoring engineers and improving technical practices across a team or organization.

What will help you on the job

• Experience with satellite payload architectures, digital transparent processors, regenerative payloads, or onboard processing systems.
• Familiarity with beamforming, channelizers, modem architectures, waveform processing, packet processing, or high-throughput satellite systems.
• Familiarity with DVB-S2, DVB-S2X, DVB-RCS, 3GPP, or related communications standards.
• Experience with MBSE, requirements management tools, architectural modeling, or digital engineering environments.
• Background in high-reliability, radiation-tolerant, mission-critical, or space-qualified systems.
• Ability to balance technical rigor with cost, schedule, risk, reuse, manufacturability, and verification constraints.
• Track record of contributing to technical strategy, roadmap development, design standards, or reusable architectures.

EEO Statement

Viasat is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, seeking to create a welcoming and diverse environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, genetics, age, or veteran status or any other applicable legally protected status or characteristic. If you would like to request an accommodation on the basis of disability for completing this on-line application, please click here.