Senior FPGA Prototyping Engineer - Hardware

NVIDIA; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 168,000 - 265,000; Full time

Job summary

NVIDIA is seeking experienced engineers specialized in FPGA prototyping to develop and optimize innovative prototypes for advanced GPUs and SOCs. This role requires strong technical knowledge, collaboration across teams, and expertise in backend FPGA flows. If you're ready to contribute to groundbreaking technology in a dynamic environment, join their mission of amplifying human imagination and intelligence.

Benefits

Equity opportunities

Comprehensive benefits

Qualifications

• 7+ years experience in FPGA prototyping or 5+ years with MS.
• Good understanding of FPGA tools and backend flows.
• Hands-on experience with lab debugging tools and methodologies.

Responsibilities

• Build and optimize FPGA prototypes for next-gen GPUs and SOCs.
• Perform synthesis, place, and route for performance improvement.
• Coordinate with architects and verification engineers.

Skills

FPGA prototyping architecture

Verilog

System Verilog

Digital design concepts

Debugging

Education

BS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related fields

MS degree

Tools

Synopsys Protocompiler

Synplify Premier

Xilinx Vivado

VCS

GDB

Job description

Are you passionate about FPGA prototyping? Are you interested in pushing the boundaries of innovation to make FPGA prototypes faster and more efficient? Can you work in a fast-paced environment that requires coordination between many teams across geographies and resolving sophisticated problems daily? If so, we are looking for hardworking engineers who will craft FPGA prototypes of our next generation GPUs and SOCs on standard FPGA prototyping platforms.

What you'll be doing:

• Build FPGA prototypes by making RTL FPGA-friendly, partitioning the design and taking it through synthesis and place and route.

• Improve performance of the prototype, analyze timing and generate bit streams.

• Bring up the design on FPGA prototyping platforms and indulge in problem solving.

• Release the prototype to the customers and support them when they face problems.

• You are expected to understand the design and implementation, define the configurations, develop/modify the bringup and testing infrastructure and verify the correctness of the design.

• Good coordination with architects, designers, verification engineers, and SW teams will be needed to accomplish your tasks.

What we need to see:

• BS (or equivalent experience) in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related fields with 7+ years of experience, or MS with 5+ years of proven experience in FPGA prototyping.

• Good understanding of FPGA prototyping architecture, devices, flows and tools.

• Experience in backend flows of FPGA Prototyping - Synthesis, P&R and Timing closure, with emphasis on Synopsys Protocompiler or Synplify Premier and Xilinx Vivado

• Exposure to ASIC design and verification tools (VCS or equivalent, Verdi, GDB).

• Knowledge of Verilog, System Verilog and digital design concepts.

• Good debugging and problem solving skills.

• Hands on experience with lab FPGA debug methodologies, tools (Identify or ChipScope), and lab debug equipment (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers).

Ways to stand out from the crowd:

• Scripting knowledge (Perl/shell/Tcl) is desired.

• Good documentation, communication and interpersonal skills.

• Experience with memory bring up of Memory (LPDDR5/6, DDR5/6), CXL/PCIE and/or high speed I/F such as USB4/3 is desirable

• Prior experience with hardware emulation or prototyping (Synopsys HAPS, Zebu, Mentor Veloce) of a high-performance processor or SOC is a plus.

NVIDIA has continuously reinvented itself over two decades. Our invention of the GPU in 1999 sparked the growth of the PC gaming market, redefined modern computer graphics, and revolutionized parallel computing. More recently, GPU deep learning ignited modern AI — the next era of computing. NVIDIA is a “learning machine” that constantly evolves by adapting to new opportunities that are hard to solve, that only we can tackle, and that matter to the world. This is our life’s work, to amplify human imagination and intelligence. Make the choice to join us today!

The base salary range is 168,000 USD - 264,500 USD. Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions.

You will also be eligible for equity and benefits. NVIDIA accepts applications on an ongoing basis.

NVIDIA is committed to fostering a diverse work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. As we highly value diversity in our current and future employees, we do not discriminate (including in our hiring and promotion practices) on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by law.