Lead Firmware & FPGA Engineer
Acron Aviation
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Job summary
Acron Aviation in the Phoenix area is seeking an experienced Lead Firmware & FPGA Engineer for Surveillance to drive architecture, development, and certification of airborne avionics systems. You will oversee FPGA, firmware, and CEH work, guide external partners, and ensure DO-254 compliance across the product lifecycle.
The role requires strong technical leadership, deep systems understanding, and a track record delivering safety-critical embedded programs.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related discipline.
- 10+ years in aerospace, avionics, or safety-critical embedded product development.
- 5+ years leading firmware/FPGA/embedded avionics programs.
- Strong experience in embedded firmware architecture, design, integration, verification for safety-critical systems.
- Experience managing external engineering partners or contract organizations.
- Experience developing and managing requirements documentation with traceability.
- Proven knowledge of RTCA DO-254 certification for airborne systems.
- Understanding firmware integration across FPGA, hardware, software, and validation environments.
- Experience supporting certification/regulatory activities in avionics.
Responsibilities
- Lead architecture and development of RF airborne avionics from concept to certification.
- Allocate system requirements across FPGA, firmware, CEH, RF, analog, digital.
- Oversee firmware and FPGA design integration and performance budgets.
- Coordinate external partners and DO-254 lifecycle activities.
- Drive AI-enabled engineering automation to improve productivity.
- Ensure certification readiness with traceability and evidence.
- Lead verification and validation of firmware and hardware.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
Acron Aviation designs, engineers, and manufactures certified avionics systems that support safety-critical flight operations across commercial and military aviation. Within Avionics, the Surveillance product line develops and sustains systems that enable aircraft awareness, collision avoidance, and airspace interoperability. Our portfolio includes TCAS, Mode S transponders, ADS-B, and integrated surveillance solutions deployed across commercial, military, and rotorcraft platforms. This work is performed in highly regulated environments and demands deep expertise across systems, hardware, software, and RF throughout the full product lifecycle.
The Lead Firmware & FPGA Engineer is responsible for the technical leadership, architecture, development, certification support, and lifecycle management of advanced avionics systems spanning FPGA, firmware, and Complex Electronic Hardware (CEH) domains. This role leads firmware, FPGA, and hardware engineering activities for airborne products including transponder, TCAS, surveillance, and communications systems while ensuring compliance with aerospace standards and customer requirements. The position serves as the primary technical authority for firmware development, requirements definition, and design execution, including oversight of external engineering partners and contract design organizations. The successful candidate will lead firmware architecture and performance trade studies, leverage AI-enabled engineering tools to improve productivity and automation, and own the development of product hardware requirements and design documentation throughout the product lifecycle.
- Lead engineering activities supporting the development of RF airborne avionics products from concept through certification and production
- Define system architecture and allocate requirements across FPGA, firmware, CEH, RF, analog, digital, mixed-signal, software, mechanical, and systems engineering disciplines
- Serve as technical lead for surveillance, communications, and collision avoidance products, including Mode S transponders, ADS-B systems, and TCAS equipment
- Provide technical guidance, mentorship, and engineering oversight to multidisciplinary development teams
- Support strategic product roadmaps and next-generation avionics technology initiatives
- Lead firmware and FPGA architecture, design integration, and technical decision-making for avionics products
- Establish firmware and FPGA requirements, interfaces, and performance budgets for timing, latency, throughput, resource utilization, determinism, fault handling, and system reliability
- Drive firmware and FPGA trade studies and design reviews across requirements allocation, RTL implementation, state-machine design, timing closure, verification strategy, configuration management, and hardware integration
- Lead execution of the DO-254 development process for Complex Electronic Hardware (CEH)
- Coordinate validation, laboratory bring-up, and system integration activities across firmware, FPGA, hardware, software, and systems engineering teams
- Support certification readiness by ensuring design evidence, verification coverage, traceability, lifecycle data, and compliance artifacts are complete and auditable
- Develop, maintain, and own Hardware Requirements Documents (HRDs) and associated derived requirements
- Ensure traceability between customer, system, hardware, software, and certification requirements
- Lead requirements decomposition, validation, verification planning, and change management activities
- Establish acceptance criteria and verification methods for hardware requirements
- Manage and provide technical oversight of outsourced engineering partners supporting firmware, FPGA, RF, electrical, and hardware development activities
- Define statements of work, technical deliverables, schedules, design reviews, and acceptance criteria
- Conduct design audits and technical reviews to ensure compliance with company standards and certification requirements
- Coordinate technical communication between internal stakeholders and external development organizations
- Assess supplier technical risks and implement mitigation strategies
- Direct the design and development of embedded firmware for complex avionics products
- Review firmware architecture, detailed design artifacts, interface definitions, implementation approaches, and test results
- Ensure firmware designs meet performance, determinism, reliability, maintainability, and certification objectives
- Support integration activities across firmware, FPGA, electrical hardware, software, and system-level validation environments
- Drive robust firmware development practices supporting traceability, verification coverage, configuration management, and certification compliance
- Champion the adoption of AI technologies to improve engineering productivity, quality, and development efficiency
- Maintain a continuous improvement mindset and evaluate opportunities for process optimization
- Evaluate emerging AI technologies and integrate effective solutions into engineering workflows to reduce repetitive and low-value work
- Lead firmware verification and validation activities throughout the development lifecycle, primarily through oversight of outsourced development partners
- Review and approve test plans, procedures, reports, and qualification data
- Support root cause analysis, troubleshooting, and corrective action investigations
- Ensure complete requirements verification coverage and certification evidence generation
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related engineering discipline
- 10+ years of experience in aerospace, avionics, or safety-critical embedded product development
- 5+ years of technical leadership experience leading complex firmware, FPGA, or embedded avionics development programs
- Strong experience in embedded firmware architecture, design, integration, and verification for safety-critical electronic systems
- Experience managing and overseeing external engineering design partners or contract development organizations
- Experience developing and managing requirements documentation, traceability, and verification evidence for firmware or complex electronic hardware
- Proven knowledge of RTCA DO-254 certification expectations applicable to airborne systems
- Strong understanding of firmware integration challenges across FPGA, hardware, software, and system validation environments
- Experience supporting certification and regulatory compliance activities for avionics or other highly regulated products
- Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related discipline
- Experience leading firmware development for FAA, EASA, TSO, ETSO, or military avionics programs
- Familiarity with DO-178C, ARP4754A, and ARP4761 development and certification processes
- Experience with FPGA-based designs, programmable logic integration, and coordination across firmware and hardware boundaries
- Experience with embedded firmware supporting surveillance or communications technologies including Mode S Transponders, ADS-B, IFF, DME, TCAS, or ACAS
- Experience implementing AI-assisted engineering workflows and automation solutions
- Experience with DOORS or similar requirements management tools
- Experience reviewing outsourced firmware development deliverables, plans, and verification artifacts
- Project leadership or engineering management experience
- Technical leadership
- Avionics systems thinking
- Requirements engineering
- Supplier management
- Product ownership
- Strategic planning
- Risk management
- Cross-functional collaboration
- AI-enabled engineering innovation
- Continuous improvement mindset
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Ability to influence technical direction across organizations
Acron Aviation is proud to be an Affiantive Action and Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to treating all employees and applicants with respect and dignity and to maintaining a workplace free from unlawful discrimination. All applicants will be considered for employment regardless of race, color, religion, age, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or other related medical conditions), gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, disability, genetic information, citizenship status, or any other legally protected characteristic.
Acron Aviation maintains a drug-free workplace and conducts pre-employment substance abuse testing and background checks, where allowed by law. Acron Aviation is an E-Verify employer.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
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