Entry Level- FPGA Engineer (Onsite- Aberdeen, Maryland)

Socket.dev; Maryland; On-site; USD 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Fairwinds Technologies is seeking an entry-level FPGA Engineer to join our xG and Mixed Signal teams. You will contribute to digital design concepts, implement FPGA logic, and verify performance across radios, RF systems, and embedded platforms.

You will work with experienced engineers to develop reusable data paths, test benches, and verification strategies, gaining exposure to the full lifecycle from requirements to hardware verification in a hands-on environment.

Qualifications

• Coursework, laboratory, internship or project experience with FPGA development.
• Foundational understanding of synchronous digital design, FSMs, registers, and timing concepts.
• Experience with HDL and simulation tools for verification.
• Ability to document results clearly and collaborate in a multidisciplinary team.

Responsibilities

• Design, simulate, implement, integrate, and verify FPGA logic using HDL.
• Create testbenches, vectors, assertions, and verification procedures.
• Work with DSP, RF, embedded software, and test engineers to meet requirements.
• Use vendor tools to synthesize, place and route, and debug hardware.
• Prepare design descriptions and verification reports for products and customer projects.

Skills

FPGA development

VHDL/Verilog/SystemVerilog

Digital design

Testbenches

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical/Computer Engineering or related field

Tools

Xilinx Vivado

ModelSim

Quartus

Job description

ENTRY-LEVEL FPGA ENGINEER

xG and Mixed Signal Product Development | Technical Services

About the opportunity

Fairwinds Technologies is continuously looking for curious, hands-on early-career engineers who want to turn digital design concepts into working hardware for radios, RF systems, embedded platforms, and operationally relevant test environments. In this role, you may support either our xG or Mixed Signal product development team, or technical-services contracts aligned with those product areas.

You will work alongside experienced FPGA, DSP, RF, embedded software, systems, and test engineers to design, simulate, implement, integrate, and verify programmable-logic solutions. Assignments may span internal product development and customer-funded research, integration, test, demonstration, and field-support activities. The position is designed to build practical engineering depth while giving an early-career engineer exposure to the full lifecycle from requirements and architecture through hardware verification and measured system performance.

What you will do

• Design, implement, simulate, and verify FPGA logic using VHDL, Verilog, or SystemVerilog under the guidance of experienced engineers.
• Develop reusable modules for data movement, control, timing, digital interfaces, buffering, signal processing, monitoring, and system integration.
• Create testbenches, test vectors, assertions, and repeatable verification procedures to demonstrate functional and timing performance.
• Use FPGA vendor development tools to synthesize, place and route, analyze timing, program devices, and debug designs in laboratory hardware.
• Support device and board bring-up involving FPGAs, data converters, processors, memory, clocks, radios, RF front ends, and high-speed digital interfaces.
• Collaborate with DSP engineers to translate algorithms and reference models into fixed-point, pipelined, resource-aware hardware implementations.
• Collaborate with embedded software engineers on register maps, control interfaces, drivers, configuration, telemetry, and embedded Linux integration.
• Use simulation, on-chip debug tools, laboratory instruments, and captured data to identify root causes and validate corrective actions.
• Participate in code reviews, configuration management, issue tracking, design reviews, and continuous integration practices.
• Prepare clear design descriptions, interface documentation, verification results, test reports, and configuration records for product and customer-funded activities.

Technology and mission areas

Depending on assignment, you may contribute in one or more of the following areas:

• xG wireless systems, including 5G, non-terrestrial networking, software-defined radio, tactical communications, radio integration, and networked edge systems.
• Mixed Signal products, including Global Link and EchoPhase-related capabilities, channel emulation, coherent combining, wideband signal processing, and high-speed data-converter interfaces.
• Digital upconversion and downconversion, filtering, channelization, synchronization, buffering, timing, control, calibration, and real-time data paths.
• Ruggedized mission modules and RF systems that combine FPGA logic, embedded compute, networking, radio, and mixed-signal hardware.
• Government-funded R&D and technical-services contracts involving architecture, implementation, integration, verification, demonstrations, documentation, and field support.

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a closely related technical field, completed or expected before start date.
• Coursework, laboratory, internship, capstone, research, or personal-project experience with FPGA development, digital logic, computer architecture, or embedded systems.
• Foundational understanding of synchronous digital design, finite-state machines, registers, counters, memories, clocking, reset strategies, and timing concepts.
• Academic or project experience using VHDL, Verilog, SystemVerilog, or another hardware description language.
• Basic familiarity with simulation, synthesis, testbenches, and debugging digital hardware.
• Ability to apply structured problem solving, learn unfamiliar devices and interfaces, communicate assumptions, and document results clearly.
• Ability to collaborate in a multidisciplinary engineering environment and satisfy customer, site-access, export-control, and security requirements associated with assigned work.

Preferred, not required

• Hands-on experience with an AMD/Xilinx, Intel/Altera, Microchip, Lattice, or comparable FPGA development board and toolchain.
• Exposure to high-speed interfaces, data converters, DDR memory, Ethernet, PCIe, JESD204, SPI, I2C, UART, AXI, or similar buses and protocols.
• Familiarity with fixed-point arithmetic, digital signal processing, software-defined radio, clock-domain crossing, timing closure, or hardware-in-the-loop testing.
• Experience using Python, MATLAB, Simulink, cocotb, C or C++, Linux, Git, scripting, or automated build and verification workflows.
• Coursework or project experience in wireless communications, RF systems, signal processing, 5G/LTE, non-terrestrial networks, radar, satellite communications, or test and measurement.

Why join Fairwinds Technologies

• Work on products and customer-funded R&D activities within the same technical domain, connecting digital design with hardware, software, RF systems, measured data, and operational use cases.
• Gain broad exposure to programmable logic, wideband signal processing, high-speed interfaces, data converters, wireless systems, embedded computing, laboratory integration, and field testing.
• Learn from experienced multidisciplinary engineers while receiving meaningful design, implementation, bring-up, and verification responsibilities early in your career.
• Join a growing technology organization expanding its xG and Mixed Signal portfolios and strengthening repeatable product-development practices.

Compensation- Salary

At Fairwinds, we consider many factors when it comes to compensation, including the scope of the position as well as your background and experience. Base pay may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, location and experience. Additional incentives may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to a range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits.

Position Type/Expected Hours of Work

This is a full time, exempt position.

Work Authorization/Security Clearance:

Must be eligible to work in the US.

AAP/EEO Statement

Fairwinds Technologies, LLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer - M/F/Veteran/Disability/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity