Early Career R&D Electrical Engineer - FPGA Designer, Onsite

Sandia National Laboratories; Albuquerque (NM); On-site; USD 102,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Sandia National Laboratories is seeking a highly motivated FPGA design Engineer to join the Advanced RF Systems team. You will develop and field advanced FPGA solutions for national security projects, collaborating with a multidisciplinary group to deliver robust hardware designs and verifications.

The role emphasizes HDL expertise, embedded subsystems, and cooperation with internal and external facilities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline or equivalent experience.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a DOE Q and SCI clearance, may require a polygraph.

Responsibilities

• Design, simulate and implement synthesizable RTL for high performance FPGAs.
• Create original designs and modify existing FPGA designs.
• Write simulation testbenches for functional verification and verify firmware with testbenches.

Skills

FPGA design

Verilog/VHDL

Embedded systems

HDL experience

Team collaboration

Documentation

Education

Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline

Graduate degree in Electrical Engineering

Tools

Microsemi Libero

Xilinx Vivado

Job description

About Sandia

Sandia National Laboratories is the nation's premier science and engineering lab for national security and technology innovation, with teams of specialists focused on cutting-edge work in a broad array of areas. Some of the main reasons we love our jobs:

• Challenging work with amazing impact that contributes to security, peace, and freedom worldwide
• Extraordinary co-workers
• Some of the best tools, equipment, and research facilities in the world
• Career advancement and enrichment opportunities
• Flexible work arrangements for many positions include 9/80 (work 80 hours every two weeks, with every other Friday off) and 4/10 (work 4 ten-hour days each week) compressed workweeks, part-time work, and telecommuting (a mix of onsite work and working from home)
• Generous vacation, strong medical and other benefits, competitive 401k, learning opportunities, relocation assistance and amenities aimed at creating a solid work/life balance*

World-changing technologies. Life-changing careers. Learn more about Sandia at: http:\/\/www.sandia.gov

*These benefits vary by job classification.

What Your Job Will Be Like

The Advanced RF Systems department (5365) is seeking a highly motivated FPGA design Engineer to join its team. This position focuses on providing specialized FPGA expertise to aid in the development and fielding of communications and electronic warfare systems. You will be joining a multi-disciplinary team focused on delivering solutions to national security challenges. The ideal candidate will possess strong teamwork skills and a background in hardware design languages (HDL).

On any given day, you may be called on to:

Develop and incorporate innovative technologies including efforts to:

• Design, simulate and implement synthesizable RTL for high performance FPGAs
• Create original designs as well as modify and improve existing FPGA designs
• Write simulation testbenches for functional verification
• Design embedded electronic subsystems
• Test and troubleshoot printed wiring assemblies (PWAs) in the lab using power supplies, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and other lab equipment
• Create innovative solutions to difficult technical problems
• Working cooperatively with other internal organizations, as well as external production facilities and suppliers
• Troubleshoot problems and support anomaly resolution activities
• Support customer funded advanced development needs
• Provide engineering and programmatic documentation
• Apply knowledge and experience to evaluate and improve work quality, performance, and alignment of results with customer expectations.
• The position will require occasional travel.

Due to the nature of work, successful candidate must be able to work onsite. Relocation provided for those that qualify.

Salary Range

$102,400 - $199,700

*Salary range is estimated, and actual salary will be determined after consideration of the selected candidate's experience and qualifications, and application of any approved geographic salary differential.

Qualifications We Require

• A Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline, or an equivalent combination of directly relevant education and engineering or scientific experience that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform independent research and development
• Ability to obtain and maintain a DOE Q and SCI clearance which may require a polygraph test.

Qualifications We Desire

The ideal R&D S&E Electrical Engineer candidate will in addition possess the following:

• Graduate degree in Electrical Engineering or a highly related field where an independent research project was a graduation requirement (e.g., independent project, thesis, or dissertation).
• Ability to work independently and collaborate well in a multidisciplinary team of designers and test engineers.
• Outstanding verbal and written skills, including the ability to develop and present briefings that are clear and compelling.
• FPGA programming and verification experience
• Proficiency with Hardware Design Languages (Verilog, VHDL, etc.)
• 2 plus years of related experience in the following areas:
  • Development and verification of custom RTL for FPGA design (preferably VHDL)
  • Static Timing analysis
  • Development and use of testbench code for firmware validation
  • Troubleshooting of firmware using simulation software
  • Use of Microsemi Libero and/or Xilinx Vivado
  • Embedded system design
• Current DOE Q clearance
• Possess a strong dedication to positive teaming dynamic, strong written and verbal skills, detail oriented with a keen focus on customer service

About Our Team

As part of the Intelligent RF Communications group, we play a pivotal role in advancing the Nation's technological superiority. Our team is dedicated to delivering capabilities that ensure RF and spectral dominance, highly reliable communications, and groundbreaking advancements that fortify our future strength. We thrive in a dynamic environment where cross-department collaboration is key, enabling us to provide integrated engineering solutions that span from core research to prototype development and high-end, fielded products.

In the Advanced RF Systems department (5365), we tackle pressing national security challenges by developing innovative solutions in wireless communication and electronic warfare. Our customers include a variety of government organizations including the U.S Armed Forces, the Intelligence Community, and those conducting special operations missions. Our staff members have a diverse skills set including microwave circuit design, antenna design, signal analysis, digital signal processing, and embedded software.

We partner across the laboratory and the group to bring on other critical skill sets to our multi-disciplinary team to include computer scientists, systems engineers, and cyber engineers. Our design challenges include system development (designing scalable systems, systems integration into host platforms, etc), understanding complex adversary systems and associated vulnerabilities, and signal analysis and generation of RF low probably of detect waveforms.

Posting Duration

This posting will be open for application submissions for a minimum of three (3) calendar days, including the 'posting date'. Sandia reserves the right to extend the posting date at any time.

Security Clearance

Sandia is required by DOE to conduct a pre-employment drug test and background review that includes checks of personal references, credit, law enforcement records, and employment/education verifications. Applicants for employment need to be able to obtain and maintain a DOE Q-level security clearance and SCI access, both of which require US citizenship. SCI access may also require a polygraph examination. If you hold more than one citizenship (i.e., of the U.S. and another country), your ability to obtain these levels of access may be impacted.

Applicants offered employment with Sandia are subject to a federal background investigation to meet the requirements for access to classified information or matter if the duties of the position require a DOE security clearance. Substance abuse or illegal drug use, falsification of information, criminal activity, serious misconduct or other indicators of untrustworthiness can cause a clearance to be denied or terminated by the DOE, resulting in the inability to perform the duties assigned and subsequent termination of employment.

EEO

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or veteran status and any other protected class under state or federal law.

NNSA Requirements for MedPEDs

If you have a Medical Portable Electronic Device (MedPED), such as a pacemaker, defibrillator, drug-releasing pump, hearing aids, or diagnostic equipment and other equipment for measuring, monitoring, and recording body functions such as heartbeat and brain waves, if employed by Sandia National Laboratories you may be required to comply with NNSA security requirements for MedPEDs.

If you have a MedPED and you are selected for an on-site interview at Sandia National Laboratories, there may be additional steps necessary to ensure compliance with NNSA security requirements prior to the interview date.