FPGA Engineer

Northrop Grumman; Rolling Meadows (IL); On-site; USD 96,000 - 145,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance may be available

Health insurance

Paid time off

Job summary

Northrop Grumman is seeking an FPGA Design Engineer to join the Rolling Meadows, IL team. You will contribute across the FPGA development lifecycle, delivering RF/EO-IR subassemblies and coordinating with cross-functional engineering groups.

The role requires a strong background in HDL, FPGA toolchains, and a willingness to obtain and maintain a secret security clearance. On-site work in Rolling Meadows is expected.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical/Computer Engineering or related field, 2+ years FPGA/ASIC design.
• Solid understanding of VHDL, Verilog, or SystemVerilog.
• Experience with synchronous RTL, including state machines, control logic, data paths, clocks, and resets.
• Experience developing RTL testbenches and debugging simulation failures.
• Familiarity with the overall FPGA development flow, including RTL simulation, synthesis, place and route, timing analysis, and generation of FPGA programming files.
• Experience with FPGA device architectures and toolchains (Xilinx Vivado or Intel Quartus).
• Experience with FPGA EDA tools (ModelSim/QuestaSim, Synplify, Vivado, Quartus, Platform Designer).
• Experience with scripting or programming languages (MATLAB, Python, or C/C++).
• Exposure to engineering requirements, design specs, test specs, or technical docs.
• Ability to complete defined technical assignments with guidance and communicate status.

Responsibilities

• Contribute across the FPGA development lifecycle from requirements to timing closure.
• Develop FPGA-based digital subsystems for circuit card assemblies.
• Collaborate with systems, software, hardware, and integration engineers.
• Work with FPGA technologies from AMD Xilinx, Intel, and high-speed interfaces.
• Support hardware integration and troubleshooting.

Skills

VHDL/Verilog/SystemVerilog

RTL design

Synchronous RTL

RTL testbenches

FPGA toolchain Vivado/Quartus

ModelSim/QuestaSim

MATLAB/Python/C/C++

U.S. citizenship

Interim secret clearance

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or closely related engineering discipline

Tools

Vivado

Quartus

ModelSim/QuestaSim

Job description

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes

CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret

TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the Time

Description

At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people's lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work - and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, they're making history.

We are seeking talented FPGA Design Engineers to join our growing team in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

The Multidomain Sensing, Targeting, and Survivability Division (MSTS), located in the Northwest Chicago suburbs, develops operational Electronic Warfare (EW) and targeting systems that provide situational awareness, self-protection, and offensive electronic attack capability to platforms across the spectrum from visible light IR to millimeter wave RF. By joining us, you’ll work on projects that help safeguard our nation related to land forces, rotary wing survivability systems, international and U.S. military electronic warfare systems, communications systems, missile warning systems and sensors, infrared counter-measure systems (IRCM), automatic test equipment, modeling and simulation, and situational awareness programs.

As an FPGA Design Engineer, you will join a diverse, high-performing team responsible for the end-to-end development of advanced RF and EO/IR products. You will contribute across the FPGA development lifecycle, including requirements analysis and refinement, system and FPGA architecture, RTL design and coding, testbench development, verification, synthesis, implementation, timing closure, hardware integration, qualification, production support, and troubleshooting.

You will develop FPGA-based digital subsystems integrated into circuit card assemblies, working closely with systems, software, hardware, and integration & test engineers. Designs utilize FPGA technologies from major vendors including AMD Xilinx, Intel, and support high-speed interfaces, RF and EO/IR signal-processing chains, controls, data links, embedded processing, and processor interfaces.

This position will be full-time and on-site at our Rolling Meadows, IL. location.

The qualifications for the FPGA Design Engineer are below.

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a closely related engineering discipline with a minimum of 2 years of relevant FPGA/ASIC design experience; or a master’s degree with relevant experience.
• Solid understanding of VHDL, Verilog, or SystemVerilog for RTL design and verification.
• Experience developing synchronous RTL, including state machines, control logic, data paths, clocks, and resets.
• Experience developing or modifying RTL testbenches and debugging simulation failures.
• Familiarity with the overall FPGA development flow, including RTL simulation, synthesis, place and route, timing analysis, and generation of FPGA programming files.
• Experience with at least one major FPGA device architecture and its associated development toolchain, such as AMD Xilinx devices with Vivado or Intel FPGA devices with Quartus.
• Experience with FPGA electronic design automation tools, such as ModelSim/QuestaSim, Synplify, Vivado, Quartus, SOPC Builder/Qsys/Platform Designer, or DSP Builder.
• Experience with scripting or high-level programming languages, such as MATLAB, Python, or C/C++.
• Exposure to developing engineering requirements, design specifications, test specifications, or other controlled technical documentation.
• Ability to complete defined technical assignments with moderate guidance, communicate technical status and blockers proactively, incorporate peer-review feedback, and work effectively across engineering disciplines.
• U.S. citizenship.
• Must have interim secret clearance prior to starting. Once started, must have the ability to obtain and maintain a secret security clearance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Current or active Secret or Top Secret clearance with SCI/SAP eligibility.
• Academic or practical experience with RF, EO/IR, communications, or digital signal-processing concepts, including I/Q representation, sampling, filtering, or frequency-domain analysis.
• Experience implementing digital signal-processing or image-processing functions in FPGA logic.
• Experience with high-speed interfaces such as AXI, PCIe, Aurora, JESD, or 10G/25G/40G+ Ethernet.
• Experience developing and integrating FPGA/software interfaces, register maps, and controls.
• Experience with MATLAB or Simulink for algorithm modeling, simulation, or FPGA implementation support.
• Familiarity with clock-domain crossings, reset-domain crossings, and timing constraints.
• Experience integrating or testing FPGA designs in a laboratory environment using signal generators, logic analyzers, digital oscilloscopes, protocol analyzers, or embedded FPGA debug tools such as Vivado ILA or Intel SignalTap.
• Experience using SystemVerilog/UVM, cocotb, or other structured verification frameworks.
• Familiarity with configuration-management, requirements, planning, and review tools such as Git, SVN, ClearCase, DOORS, Jira, Rally, or ClearQuest.
• Strong communication and teamwork skills, with the ability to work independently on defined assignments, seek feedback, and apply feedback to improve technical work.
• Strong sense of ownership and responsibility for technical deliverables.
• Demonstrated adaptability, creativity, collaboration, and initiative, with enthusiasm for solving challenging problems and contributing to the advancement of technologies.

Primary Level Salary Range: $96,300.00 - $144,500.00

The above salary range represents a general guideline; however, Northrop Grumman considers a number of factors when determining base salary offers such as the scope and responsibilities of the position and the candidate's experience, education, skills and current market conditions.

Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Annual bonuses are designed to reward individual contributions as well as allow employees to share in company results. Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives. In addition, Northrop Grumman provides a variety of benefits including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, Company paid holidays and paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business.

The application period for the job is estimated to be 20 days from the job posting date. However, this timeline may be shortened or extended depending on business needs and the availability of qualified candidates.

Northrop Grumman is an Equal Opportunity Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class. For our complete EEO and pay transparency statement, please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com/EEO. U.S. Citizenship is required for all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.