Senior Hardware Systems Architect - Real-Time RF & FPGA

The University of Texas at Austin; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 104,000 - 174,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical coverage

Retirement contributions

Vacation and sick leave

Paid holidays

Job summary

The Space and Geophysics Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin seeks a Hardware Systems Architect / Systems Engineering Lead to drive mission‑critical hardware design and guide ongoing evolution of complex systems. You will serve as a technical leader in hardware architecture, real‑time data paths, firmware‑aware design, and distributed data‑acquisition systems.

The role spans integrating COTS and custom equipment, RF distribution, FPGA/digitizer front‑ends, and RF switch designs for

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in science, applied science, or engineering.
• Experience integrating hardware systems (COTS/custom equipment into racks; RF distribution; FPGA/digitizer data acquisition).
• Designing hardware systems for fault tolerance, high availability across nodes/sites.
• Designing/maintaining APIs and hardware‑software interfaces (register maps, memory‑mapped or streaming) for system integration.
• Ability to design, develop, evaluate, and support large complex systems.
• Strong communication to stakeholders of varying backgrounds.

Responsibilities

• Elicit system scope and requirements from stakeholders for use in designs.
• Lead the hardware systems architecture and design, including components, interactions, and interfaces; manage ongoing evolution.
• Communicate work processes, products, and results to stakeholders through documents, reports, and briefs.
• Participate in project planning and decomposition into components and actionable work units.
• Coordinate with and support stakeholders through life‑cycle from definition to deployment.
• Perform engineering estimates, guide schedules, identify dependencies.
• Conduct engineering evaluations (trade studies, reliability, risk).
• Mentor junior engineering staff and students.
• Other related functions as assigned.

Skills

Hardware systems integration

Systems architecture

RF/data acquisition

Fault-tolerant design

APIs and interface specs

Team mentoring

Effective communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in science, applied science, or engineering

Post‑graduate degree (preferred)

Tools

Jira

MBSE tools

Structurizr

Job description

The Space and Geophysics Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin seeks a Hardware Systems Architect / Systems Engineering Lead to drive mission‑critical hardware design and guide ongoing evolution of complex systems. You will serve as a technical leader in hardware architecture, real‑time data paths, firmware‑aware design, and distributed data‑acquisition systems.

The role spans integrating COTS and custom equipment, RF distribution, FPGA/digitizer front‑ends, and RF switch designs for