Lead FPGA Architect — Space Systems & High-Speed Data

Blue Origin; Washington; On-site; USD 269,000 - 377,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

401(k) with company match

Stock options

Paid parental leave

Paid time off + holidays

Job summary

Blue Origin seeks a Principal FPGA Designer for the TeraWave program in the Greater Seattle area. You will lead end-to-end FPGA design, develop verification environments, and collaborate across disciplines to deliver high-speed data processing and communications systems for space applications.

You will mentor engineers, refine methodologies, and drive design reviews while selecting devices and tools to meet stringent performance, reliability, and production requirements.

Qualifications

• 12+ years FPGA design and verification with leadership at principal/senior level.
• Proficiency in VHDL, Verilog, and SystemVerilog for RTL design and simulation.
• Experience with FPGA device families (AMD Versal, IGLOO).
• Strong toolchain experience for synthesis, place-and-route, timing analysis.
• Deep understanding of high-speed digital design, SI, CDC, SERDES (PCIe, GTH/GTY).
• DSP architectures in FPGAs; hardware/software co-design with embedded processors.
• Ability to close complex timing constraints and optimize resources.
• Experience with verification methodologies and UVM-based approaches.
• Structured engineering with configuration management and design reviews; strong communication.
• Preference for space/defense or satellite program experience.
• Mentoring and technical development of engineers.

Responsibilities

• Lead FPGA designs through full lifecycle: requirements, architecture, RTL, verification, synthesis, P&R, timing, bring-up.
• Refine FPGA methodologies, coding standards, and best practices.
• Develop verification environments with testbenches and coverage models.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to define interfaces and ensure system performance.
• Support lab bring-up, debugging, and hardware integration.
• Lead design reviews and provide technical feedback.
• Mentor junior engineers and drive engineering excellence.
• Assess devices, IP cores, and tools to meet program needs.
• Contribute to project planning with estimates and risk mitigation.
• Maintain design docs, interface control documents and test plans.
• Support qualification, production and on-orbit operations; include DFT/DFM features.

Skills

VHDL

Verilog

SystemVerilog

RTL design

Timing closure

High-speed digital

SERDES PCIe

DSP in FPGA

Hardware/software co-design

Mentoring/leadership

Verification methodologies

Clock domain crossing

Education

Bachelor's in Electrical/Computer Engineering

Master's or PhD in related field

Tools

Vivado/EDA

ModelSim

UVM

Synthesis/P&R tools

AMD Versal & IGLOO devices

Job description

Blue Origin seeks a Principal FPGA Designer for the TeraWave program in the Greater Seattle area. You will lead end-to-end FPGA design, develop verification environments, and collaborate across disciplines to deliver high-speed data processing and communications systems for space applications.

You will mentor engineers, refine methodologies, and drive design reviews while selecting devices and tools to meet stringent performance, reliability, and production requirements.