Staff Electrical Engineer - FPGA

VoltForce; Oakland (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

VoltForce is seeking a Staff Electrical Engineer for FPGA/MPSoC systems and DSP. The role emphasizes end-to-end hardware/software collaboration, RTL development, and real-time DSP workflows on complex boards. You’ll work across hardware, firmware, and analytics teams in a fast-moving environment.

The candidate should have 5+ years in electrical engineering with hands-on FPGA, MPSoC, DSP, and verification experience, plus strong schematic proficiency and lab bring-up capability.

Qualifications

• End-to-end FPGA/MPSoC design with architecture, RTL, simulation, timing closure and board bring-up.
• FPGA-based DSP for real-time systems including FIR filters and streaming pipelines.
• Proficiency in MATLAB and Python for modeling and analysis.
• Experience with PID/ADPLL/filtering and signal characterization workflows.
• HDL/RTL implementation for high-performance data-paths and control.
• Testbenches, verification environments, and bench-level validation workflows.
• Strong firmware/hardware integration and system-level debugging ability.
• Ability to read schematics and work at board/subsystem level.
• Hands-on lab hardware bring-up experience with standard test equipment.

Responsibilities

• Define FPGA/MPSoC architectures and drive implementation across hardware and software teams.
• Develop testbenches and verification environments for DSP pipelines.
• Collaborate on firmware/hardware integration and debugging in production-like labs.
• Support integration and validation across subsystems and boards.

Skills

End-to-end FPGA design

MPSoC design

HDL/RTL implementation

DSP for real-time systems

MATLAB

Python

Firmware integration

System-level debugging

Schematic reading

Bench-level validation

Education

B.S./M.S./PhD in Electrical Engineering or related

Tools

Vivado

EDA tools

Job description

Staff Electrical Engineer – FPGA / MPSoC Systems & Digital Signal ProcessingConfidential client. Search led by VoltForce.
Location: San Francisco Bay Area (on-site)
Job Type: Full-time
About The CompanyVoltForce is working with an early-stage materials-inspection company on the search for a Staff Electrical Engineer. Our client helps manufacturers make better, safer, and more reliable micro- and nano-scale materials, the building blocks of critical sectors like energy storage, semiconductors, aerospace, and power systems. As demand surges and production grows more complex and faster, small undetected variations during manufacturing lead to waste, lower performance, higher cost, and safety risk, leaving manufacturers with little visibility into the quality of what they produce.
The company\'s platform changes that. It scans materials without damaging them, pairing a novel sensing approach with physics-informed machine learning to capture real-time signals that conventional methods cannot access. Those signals give manufacturers rare visibility into how materials behave as they are made.
The company turns that hidden data into actionable intelligence, helping manufacturers reduce variability and increase yield and performance. The platform can run as a standalone tool or integrate directly into production lines, and it is already in early deployment with leading global manufacturers.

What We\'re Looking For

• B.S., M.S., or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field, with 5+ years of relevant industry experience
• Strong experience with end-to-end FPGA and MPSoC design, including architecture, RTL development, simulation, synthesis, timing closure, verification, and board bring-up
• Advanced experience with FPGA-based digital signal processing for real-time systems, including FIR filters, synchronization methods, streaming pipelines, and control-oriented digital design
• Strong experience with algorithm modeling and analysis using MATLAB and Python
• Experience implementing and validating signal-processing and control techniques such as PID, ADPLL, filtering, and signal characterization workflows
• Strong command of HDL/RTL implementation for digital signal processing, control, and high-performance data-path design
• Hands-on experience developing testbenches, verification environments, and bench-level validation workflows
• Strong understanding of firmware and hardware integration and system-level debugging in tightly coupled digital platforms
• Ability to read and understand electrical schematics and work effectively at the board and subsystem level
• Proven experience troubleshooting and bringing up hardware in the lab using standard electrical test equipment
• Experience working in a fast-moving, multidisciplinary environment with a high degree of ownership and technical independence
• Strong communication skills and a practical, problem-solving mindset

Nice to Have

• Experience providing technical leadership for hardware and firmware engineering teams in complex product development environments
• Experience with image processing or vision-related algorithm pipelines
• PCB design experience, including familiarity with board-level layout considerations and signal integrity tradeoffs
• Experience with high-speed interfaces, instrumentation systems, or real-time sensing platforms
• Familiarity with mixed-signal systems and integration with ADCs, DACs, sensors, and embedded processors
• Exposure to metrology systems, scientific instrumentation, or advanced materials applications

Why This Role

• Help define a new category in advanced materials metrology
• Work on genuinely novel deep-tech hardware with real scientific and industrial impact
• Join an early-stage team where your decisions directly shape the product, technology, and company
• Build systems at the intersection of advanced sensing, electronics, AI-driven analytics, programmable logic, and digital signal processing
• Contribute to technology that expands what researchers and industry teams are able to see, measure, and optimize