Space-Grade Firmware Engineer - FPGA/RTL Expert

Talentify; Herndon (VA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Fibertek, Inc. in Herndon, VA is seeking an experienced Firmware Engineer to contribute to our R&D division, developing firmware for space-grade laser and electro-optic payloads.

You will lead firmware architecture, implement end-to-end development, and collaborate with hardware, systems, software, and optical engineers to ensure robust, high-reliability performance for aerospace applications. Applicants should have 7+ years in firmware, strong FPGA/RTL experience, and a background in high-speed

Qualifications

• BS/MS in EE or equivalent.
• 7+ years of firmware engineering experience.
• Expertise with firmware engineering, VHDL (RTL), SystemVerilog.
• Experience with Digital Signal Processing and high-speed optical interfaces (modems, LIDAR).
• Experience with FPGA families: Xilinx, Microchip, Lattice and related tools.
• Experience developing test benches and simulations to verify designs.
• Experience interfacing with hardware engineers during development, integration and test.
• Experience with memory interfaces: DDR3/4, QDR, FRAM, etc.
• Experience with GitHub and CI/CD for FPGA flows, code reviews, linting, synthesis, timing, and release tagging.

Responsibilities

• Lead firmware architecture and implementation for space-based payloads.
• End-to-end firmware development lifecycle from requirements to validation.
• Collaborate with hardware, systems, software, and optical engineers to define interfaces and enable system integration.
• Participate in iterative development cycles with rapid feedback and frequent integration points.
• Conduct lab-based debugging, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and system-level validation.
• Support peer code reviews and continuous improvement of development processes.

Skills

Firmware engineering

VHDL RTL

SystemVerilog testing

Digital Signal Processing

LIDAR

FPGA (Xilinx)

High-speed SerDes

DDR3/4

GitHub / CI/CD

Education

B.S./M.S. in EE

Tools

FPGA development tools

GitHub CI/CD tooling

Schematic capture

Job description

Fibertek, Inc. in Herndon, VA is seeking an experienced Firmware Engineer to contribute to our R&D division, developing firmware for space-grade laser and electro-optic payloads.

You will lead firmware architecture, implement end-to-end development, and collaborate with hardware, systems, software, and optical engineers to ensure robust, high-reliability performance for aerospace applications. Applicants should have 7+ years in firmware, strong FPGA/RTL experience, and a background in high-speed