Principal FPGA Engineer

BRINC Drones; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans

401K plan

Maternity and paternity leave

Flexible Time Off

Flexible work environment

Free parking (Seattle office)

Free snacks, drinks, and espresso (Seattle office)

Job summary

A leading drone technology company in Seattle seeks a Principal FPGA Engineer to lead the design and development of advanced FPGA-based systems for autonomous drones and public safety products. In this role, you will drive innovation and collaborate across functions to deliver hardware acceleration and design robust systems that save lives. The ideal candidate should possess a Master's or PhD, extensive FPGA experience, and strong skills in Verilog and hardware integration.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of FPGA design and development experience in complex systems.
• Expert proficiency in Verilog, VHDL, and/or SystemVerilog.
• Strong background with FPGA vendor tools such as Xilinx Vivado, Intel Quartus, and ModelSim/QuestaSim.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture, design, and implementation of FPGA systems for video, sensor, and communication pipelines.
• Develop and optimize logic for high-speed digital interfaces such as MIPI CSI/DSI, LVDS, HDMI, PCIe, and Gigabit Ethernet.
• Implement memory controllers, DMA engines, and streaming architectures to support real-time data transfer.

Skills

Verilog

VHDL

SystemVerilog

High-speed digital design

FPGA resource optimization

Education

Master's or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field

Tools

Xilinx Vivado

Intel Quartus

ModelSim/QuestaSim

Job description

About BRINC
At BRINC, we are redefining public safety with an innovative ecosystem of life‑saving tools. Our journey started with the development of drones and ruggedized throw phones, designed to access unsafe areas and establish communication to de‑escalate situations. Today, we've expanded into creating and deploying 911 response networks, where drones are dispatched to 911 calls to provide real‑time visual data, enhancing safety and enabling de‑escalation‑focused responses. Our cutting‑edge solutions are utilized by over 600 public safety agencies across America and the company has raised over $150M from investors, including Index Ventures, Motorola Solutions, Sam Altman, Dylan Field, Mike Volpe, Alexandr Wang and more. At BRINC, we are committed to recruiting the world's best talent to join us in our mission to support first responders in saving lives.

About This Role

We are seeking a Principal FPGA Engineer to lead the design and development of advanced FPGA‑based systems for our autonomous drones and public safety products. In this role, you will architect and implement high‑performance video pipelines, sensor interfaces, and real‑time processing systems to enable robust perception and data handling. As a technical leader, you will drive innovation, mentor engineers, and collaborate cross‑functionally to deliver cutting‑edge hardware acceleration and digital systems that enable real‑world live‑savings robotic devices in demanding environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture, design, and implementation of FPGA systems for video, sensor, and communication pipelines.
• Develop and optimize logic for high‑speed digital interfaces such as MIPI CSI/DSI, LVDS, HDMI, PCIe, and Gigabit Ethernet.
• Implement memory controllers, DMA engines, and streaming architectures to support real‑time data transfer.
• Optimize FPGA designs for performance, power efficiency, and resource utilization.
• Collaborate with hardware, software, and systems teams to ensure seamless FPGA integration into embedded platforms.
• Implement FPGA acceleration for real‑time image signal processing (ISP) and video enhancement pipelines.

Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• 7+ years of FPGA design and development experience in complex systems.
• Expert proficiency in Verilog, VHDL, and/or SystemVerilog.
• Strong background with FPGA vendor tools such as Xilinx Vivado, Intel Quartus, and ModelSim/QuestaSim.
• Experience with Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ or similar SoC/FPGA chipsets.
• Proven ability in high‑speed digital design, timing closure, and FPGA resource optimization.
• Hands‑on experience with board‑level bring‑up, lab instrumentation, and debugging complex FPGA systems.

Preferred Skills

• 10+ years of FPGA design and development experience in complex systems.
• Familiarity with video/image signal processing hardware implementation.
• Familiarity with computer vision and perception algorithms and their hardware acceleration on FPGA.
• Experience optimizing video and sensor processing chains for low latency in autonomous systems.
• Experience with embedded processor integration (e.g. ARM cores, MicroBlaze, Nios II, or RISC‑V).
• Experience with OpenGL and general experience with hardware acceleration of algorithms on modern GPU architectures.
• Knowledge of DDR memory systems, SERDES, and multi‑gigabit transceivers.
• Experience developing FPGA systems for aerospace, defense, or safety‑critical applications.
• Track record of leading technical projects and mentoring engineering teams.

BRINC Culture Values

• Try the hard stuff
• Be innovative - Invent the future
• Move fast
• Listen to end‑users
• Strive for excellence
• Don’t build a dystopia
• Be frugal
• Save lives through technology

If you’re interested in this role and in joining BRINC, we hope you’ll apply. We’d love to review your application and get to know more about you!

BRINC is proud to be an equal opportunity employer that is resolute in cultivating an environment that promotes safety, diversity, inclusion and equity. We’re committed to hiring the best talent — regardless of race, creed, color, ancestry, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status, marital status, disability, gender identity, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances — and empowering every employee so they can do their best work. If you have a disability or special need, please let our recruiting team know - we strive to provide appropriate accommodation and assistance.

Benefits and Perks

• Comprehensive medical, dental and vision plans for our employees and their families
• 401K plan
• Maternity and paternity leave
• Flexible Time Off (Exempt) / Paid time off (Non‑Exempt)
• Flexible work environment
• Orca pass (for those in Puget Sound)
• Free parking (Seattle office)
• Free snacks, drinks and espresso (Seattle office)