FPGA Design Engineer

University of Southern California; Arlington (VA); Hybrid; USD 115,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute in Arlington, VA is seeking a highly capable FPGA Design Engineer for hardware‑assurance research. You will design, verify, and optimize specialized FPGA systems, work with RTL components, and extend EDA tools.

Hybrid work options are available and the role requires engagement with senior researchers to translate concepts into working prototypes.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree or equivalent in a related field.
• Five years of relevant experience.
• Proficiency in RTL design using VHDL or Verilog.
• Proficiency with Python or TCL scripting.
• Proficiency with FPGA EDA tools (Vivado, Quartus).
• Experience interfacing with FPGA hardware and test instrumentation.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and verify FPGA systems and RTL components in VHDL/Verilog.
• Use FPGA EDA tools for synthesis, timing analysis, and programming.
• Interface with FPGA hardware, power supplies, and test instrumentation.
• Develop Python, TCL scripts to automate design flows and data collection.
• Extend EDA tools to enable new FPGA‑assurance capabilities.
• Collaborate with senior researchers to translate concepts into prototypes.
• Document designs and results; contribute to sponsor reports.

Skills

RTL design (VHDL/Verilog)

Python/TCL scripting

FPGA hardware interfacing

Security clearance eligibility

Linux

Networking (SDN)

Education

Master’s degree in computer engineering/electrical engineering/computer science

Combined education/experience acceptable

Tools

Vivado

Quartus

Git

Mercurial

Docker

Job description

USC’s Information Sciences Institute (ISI), a unit of the university’s Viterbi School of Engineering, is a world leader in the research and development of advanced information processing, computing, communications, and artificial intelligence technologies. ISI’s faculty, professional staff, and graduate students conduct extraordinary information sciences research at locations in Arlington, Virginia; Marina del Rey, California; and Waltham, Massachusetts. The Reconfigurable Computing Group at ISI develops computer architectures and design methods that make specialized hardware more adaptable, efficient, and trustworthy. Recent work combines FPGA prototyping, ASIC design, purpose-built electronic design automation tools, and hardware-software co-design to advance rapidly reconfigurable processing for RF sensing and communications, acceleration of fully homomorphic encryption, and hardware security and assurance. The group builds and evaluates working systems, develops the tools needed to program and verify them, and collaborates across disciplines to move research toward operational use. We are seeking a highly talented and motivated FPGA Design Engineer interested in researching novel tools and techniques for assuring FPGA hardware. Working alongside senior research staff, the engineer will develop specialized FPGA designs to assess device functionality and state; work directly with FPGA hardware and laboratory instrumentation to measure, validate, and analyze device characteristics; augment commercial EDA tools; and advance open-source EDA software with new assurance capabilities. This position is based in Arlington, VA. Hybrid work options are available.

Job Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and verify specialized FPGA systems and RTL components in VHDL or Verilog to support hardware‑assurance research.
• Use FPGA EDA tools to perform synthesis, implementation, timing analysis, timing closure, and device programming.
• Interface directly with FPGA hardware, power supplies, and other test instrumentation to collect measurements, validate behavior, and analyze device functionality and characteristics.
• Develop Python, TCL, and related scripts to automate design flows, testing, data collection, and analysis.
• Extend commercial and open-source EDA tools to implement and evaluate new FPGA‑assurance capabilities.
• Collaborate with senior researchers to translate research concepts and project goals into implemented prototypes and independently developed system components.
• Document designs, methods, test results, and technical progress; contribute to sponsor reports, publications, presentations, and meetings with collaborators.
• Review technical implementations, share engineering best practices, and provide guidance or informal mentorship to junior team members as needed.
• Stay current with FPGA architectures, EDA methods, hardware‑assurance research, and emerging AI‑assisted design approaches relevant to project goals.

Minimum Qualifications

• Master’s degree in computer engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, or a closely related field, or equivalent combined education and experience.
• Five years of relevant experience.
• Proficiency in RTL design using VHDL or Verilog.
• Proficiency with scripting languages such as Python or TCL.
• Proficiency with FPGA EDA tools such as AMD Xilinx Vivado or Intel Altera Quartus, including synthesis, implementation, and timing closure.
• Experience interfacing directly with FPGA hardware, power supplies, and other test instrumentation.
• Willingness and eligibility to apply for and maintain a Top Secret security clearance.
• Eligibility for this clearance requires U.S. citizenship.
• Current SECRET clearance or higher is a plus.

Preferred Qualifications

• Seven or more years of relevant experience.
• Current Secret security clearance or higher.
• Experience applying large language model assisted design to FPGAs or implementing AI or machine learning workloads on FPGAs using AMD Vitis AI or Intel Altera FPGA AI Suite.
• Knowledge of FPGA architecture and device primitives, including AMD Xilinx Zynq, Virtex‑7, UltraScale+, or Versal devices, or comparable Intel Altera devices.
• Contributions to or experience with open‑source EDA tools such as Google Project X‑Ray, VTR or VPR, RapidSmith, or TORC.
• Demonstrated use of revision‑control systems such as Git or Mercurial in a multi‑user project environment.

Education, Experience and Skills

• Minimum Education: Master's degree
• Additional Education Requirements: Combined experience/education as substitute for minimum education
• Minimum Experience: 5 years
• Minimum Skills: Knowledge of one or more relevant programming languages (e.g., Python, C++, Goolang).
• Minimum Skills: Experience with Linux.
• Minimum Skills: Experience with Virtual LAN and/or Virtual Extensible LAN.
• Minimum Skills: Experience with Melanox Switches.
• Minimum Skills: Experience with SDN programming.
• Minimum Skills: Experience with Ansible, Bash and Nagios.
• Minimum Skills: Experience with Prometheus.
• Minimum Skills: Familiarity with Simple Network Management Protocol.
• Minimum Skills: Experience with applicable IT protocols (e.g., Border Gateway Protocol, Secure Shell, Transport Layer Security).
• Minimum Skills: Experience with iptables and Network File System.
• Preferred Education: Master's degree
• Preferred Experience: 7 years
• Preferred Skills: Proven leadership ability.
• Preferred Skills: Experience in a university environment.
• Preferred Skills: Experience with artificial intelligence, very large-scale integration design, machine learning, deep learning (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, HuggingFace), and Dockerization.

Salary

The annual base salary range for this position is $115,000 to $140,000. When extending an offer of employment, the University of Southern California considers factors such as, but not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the position, the candidate’s work experience, education and training, key skills, internal peer equity, federal, state, and local laws, contractual stipulations, grant funding, and external market and organizational considerations.

Why Work at ISI

• Work on exciting and engaging projects with real‑world impact.
• Contribute across the full project lifecycle in a small‑team environment.
• Enjoy a workplace that supports a quality work‑life balance.
• Access opportunities for top‑tier university education for you and your children.
• Receive comprehensive benefits, from medical coverage to matched retirement contributions.

USC is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law or USC policy.

USC observes affirmative action obligations consistent with state and federal law. USC will consider for employment all qualified applicants with criminal records in a manner consistent with applicable laws and regulations, including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for employers and the Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, and with due consideration for patient and student safety.

Please refer to the Background Screening Policy Appendix D for specific employment screen implications for the position for which you are applying.

We provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities. Applicants with questions about access or requiring a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should contact USC Human Resources by phone at [phone], or by email at [e-mail]. Inquiries will be treated as confidential to the extent permitted by law.

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