Staff FPGA & Sensor Electronics Architect

apptronik; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Apptronik in Sunnyvale, CA, seeks a Staff Electrical Engineer to architect electronics for Apollo's sensor bridge. You will own FPGA hardware from concept to production, including RTL development and high-speed interfaces, collaborating with perception and systems teams to deliver reliable, manufacturable hardware.

The role emphasizes leadership in design, validation, and vendor coordination, with a focus on timing closure, signal integrity, and DFx for mass production.

Qualifications

• Experience in FPGA hardware design for time-sensitive, high-performance applications (image processing, high-speed data acquisition, real-time networking, or similar).
• Ability to define FPGA device selection and architecture, RTL development, and integration of high-speed transceivers.

Responsibilities

• Own requirements, architecture, schematic capture, RTL architecture for a multi-Gbps PCBA aggregating camera data and HRI functions.
• Design and validate high-speed digital interfaces (CSI-2, GMSL/FPD-Link/PoC, 10GbE) with SI, impedance control, and length matching.
• Define FPGA device selection and architecture; develop RTL (VHDL/Verilog) for CSI-2 ingest, Ethernet packetization, and camera sync.
• Validate through lab tests, build fixtures, and troubleshoot hardware/RTL issues across the boundary.
• Lifecycle management and vendor coordination to ensure production scalability and DFM/ DFA.
• Lead cross-functional collaboration and mentor junior engineers in hardware design and documentation.

Skills

FPGA design

RTL development

High-speed interfaces

Timing closure

Clock-domain crossing

Signal integrity

DFX for PF production

Tools

Vivado

Quartus

Lattice Radiant

ModelSim/Questa

Job description

Apptronik in Sunnyvale, CA, seeks a Staff Electrical Engineer to architect electronics for Apollo's sensor bridge. You will own FPGA hardware from concept to production, including RTL development and high-speed interfaces, collaborating with perception and systems teams to deliver reliable, manufacturable hardware.

The role emphasizes leadership in design, validation, and vendor coordination, with a focus on timing closure, signal integrity, and DFx for mass production.