Space-Grade FPGA Firmware Engineer

The Judge Group; Westminster (CO); On-site; USD 140,000 - 155,000; Full time

Job summary

The Judge Group is actively seeking an FPGA Firmware Engineer in Westminster, CO. This full-time role focuses on FPGA logic (RTL) and embedded firmware for EOIR payloads on AMD Versal SoCs, with close collaboration across electrical, optical, and mechanical teams.

You will own design verification, timing closure, and high-speed data interfaces, ensuring robust performance and integration from architecture through hardware validation. A security clearance is required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience developing FPGA logic and firmware for payloads or high-reliability embedded systems.
• Strong RTL design experience in VHDL/Verilog with timing closure on AMD/Xilinx toolchains and simulation tools.
• Embedded firmware development in C/C++ on SoC/microcontroller targets (bare-metal/RTOS).
• Experience with AMD Versal, Zynq, or Zynq UltraScale+-class adaptive SoCs.
• Experience with sensor/detector interfacing and high-speed data interfaces.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and verify FPGA logic (RTL) for EOIR and payloads on AMD Versal SoC.
• Develop embedded firmware across payload stack including Versal PS, MCUs, boot/config, and device drivers.
• Design and bring up detector-readout and sensor interfaces (focal-plane arrays/ROICs) and timing/calibration paths.
• Implement high-speed data interfaces and image-processing chains (SerDes, CameraLink/CoaXPress/MIPI, SpaceWire/SpaceFibre).
• Lead board bring-up and hardware/firmware integration, debugging at hardware/firmware boundary.
• Integrate third-party IP cores and coordinate with external developers to meet schedules.
• Maintain traceability to system requirements and ensure safety/performance standards.
• Own verification processes: testbenches, simulation, timing closure, hardware-in-the-loop.
• Contribute to payload architecture and interface definition.

Skills

FPGA design

Verilog/VHDL

C/C++ embedded

SoC bring-up

High-reliability embedded systems

AMD Versal

Sensor interfaces

Timing closure

RTOS

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in Electrical/Computer Engineering or Computer Science

Tools

Vivado/Vitis

ModelSim/QuestaSim

AMD Versal tooling

Job description

The Judge Group is actively seeking an FPGA Firmware Engineer in Westminster, CO. This full-time role focuses on FPGA logic (RTL) and embedded firmware for EOIR payloads on AMD Versal SoCs, with close collaboration across electrical, optical, and mechanical teams.

You will own design verification, timing closure, and high-speed data interfaces, ensuring robust performance and integration from architecture through hardware validation. A security clearance is required.