Principal FPGA Design Engineer - Flight-Ready RTL Lead

Terran Orbital; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 175,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision coverage

401(k) Match

Flexible Time Off (FTO)

Education Reimbursement

Job summary

Terran Orbital is seeking an experienced Principal FPGA Design Engineer to lead FPGA RTL architecture, development, verification, and flight-readiness of avionics subsystems. You will collaborate across avionics, hardware and software teams to deliver high-reliability digital logic for space missions.

The role requires 12+ years in FPGA RTL and strong SystemVerilog/VHDL skills, plus experience with PolarFire, Zynq Versal, and Ultrascale.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering or equivalent.
• 12+ years of FPGA RTL architecture, development and verification.
• Strong proficiency in SystemVerilog or VHDL.
• Advanced verification methodologies and timing analysis.
• Experience with Microsemi PolarFire, AMD Zynq Versal, and Ultrascale.
• Experience with Vivado and Modelsim/Questasim.

Responsibilities

• Own FPGA RTL development from architecture through flight readiness.
• Define FPGA architecture with systems, hardware and software teams.
• Develop RTL in SystemVerilog or VHDL for PolarFire and Zynq/Versal.
• Perform verification, timing analysis, and hardware validation.
• Lead design reviews, ensure traceability, and document operation.
• Define and execute verification testing and board bring-up.
• Support system bring-up, integration and flight-test activities.
• Lead cross-functional discussions and mentor junior engineers.

Skills

FPGA RTL architecture

SystemVerilog/VHDL

Verification methodology

Linux C/C++

Git

Python

RTL debugging

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical/Computer Engineering

Tools

Vivado

Mentor Modelsim/Questasim

Polarfire

Zynq Versal

AMD Ultrascale

Job description

Terran Orbital is seeking an experienced Principal FPGA Design Engineer to lead FPGA RTL architecture, development, verification, and flight-readiness of avionics subsystems. You will collaborate across avionics, hardware and software teams to deliver high-reliability digital logic for space missions.

The role requires 12+ years in FPGA RTL and strong SystemVerilog/VHDL skills, plus experience with PolarFire, Zynq Versal, and Ultrascale.