Staff Engineer, FPGA Design (R5347)
Shield AI
Apply to this jobJob Description:
We are seeking a highly motivated FPGA Design Engineer with experience developing high-performance digital designs.
The ideal candidate will be responsible for designing, implementing, verifying, and debugging FPGA-based solutions for complex avionics solutions for cutting-edge Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). This role requires strong digital design fundamentals, experience with AMD/Xilinx development tools, and the ability to collaborate across hardware, firmware, and software teams.
What you'll do:
- Design and develop FPGA-based communication modules for advanced UAV platforms.
- Develop solutions that enable precise timing synchronization and redundance across flight controllers.
- Integrate FPGA solutions with system-level architecture in collaboration with cross-functional engineering teams.
- Perform synthesis, implementation, timing closure, bitstream generation.
- Debug, test, and optimize for reliability, latency, and throughput.
- Collaborate with PCB designers during board bring-up and hardware validation.
- Contribute to FPGA architecture discussions and help define long-term technical direction within the platform.
- Participate in design reviews and maintain engineering documentation.
Required qualifications:
- B.S., M.S, PhD degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering or STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics) discipline, such as Aerospace, Mechanical, or Electrical Engineering
- Strong experience with FPGA design, implementation, and verification using VHDL or SystemVerilog.
- Demonstrated ability to build reliable, high-performance digital communication systems.
- Solid understanding of timing closure, clock domain crossing, and system-level integration.
- Comfortable working in a fast-paced, collaborative environment with evolving requirements.
- Strong debugging and problem-solving skills.
- Knowledge of FPGA timing analysis and timing closure techniques.
- Familiarity with version control tools such as Git.
- Strong debugging and problem-solving skills.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience with Xilinx FPGA ecosystem (Vivado, toolchains, etc).
- In-depth understanding of ethernet and network stack implementation.
- Experience developing flight computers
- Experience designing solutions for safety-critical real-time systems.
- Experience with AXI4, AXI-Stream, and memory-mapped interfaces.
- Experience using TCL scripting to automate FPGA build flows.
- Knowledge of CI/CD practices for FPGA development.
Compensation (from employer):
150000–230000 USD per year
Summary
Design, verify, and optimize FPGA solutions for UAV avionics systems.
Job title
Staff Engineer, FPGA Design (R5347)
Experience level
null
Industry
defense-tech
Location requirements
Dallas, Texas, on-site work only
Salary
$150k–$230k
Visa sponsorship
H-1B sponsor history
Management role
No
Required skills
Preferred skills
Specializations
Structured locations inferred from the posting.
Dallas, TX, USA