Principal Electrical Engineer (FPGA Design Engineer)

Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems is seeking a Principal FPGA  Design Engineer to support the Common Products Circuit Design organization in Rancho Bernardo, CA.

As FPGA Design Engineer you will design, implement and verify HDL to manage I/O devices on embedded computers in a new avionics’ product line. In collaboration with the product architect, electrical designers, software engineers and systems engineers you will develop requirements, define HW/SW interfaces and determine verification approaches. You will establish integrated product development workflows, processes and tools to reduce time to market for our safety critical avionics designs.

FPGA Architecture & Design

• Define FPGA architecture and logic design to support avionics computer functions
• Translate system and board-level requirements to detailed FPGA requirements and design specifications
• Collaborate with the Product Architect to partition system functionality between hardware, firmware and software

HDL Coding & Implementation

• Develop synthesizable HDL code for FPGA-based designs
• Implement interfaces such as PCIe, SPI, I2C, UART, Ethernet and Serial
• Simulation, Verification and Validation
• Create comprehensive test benches and simulation environment to verify FPGA functionality
• Perform functional, timing and synthesis-level simulations to ensure deterministic and reliable operation
• Support hardware-in-the-loop and system-level integration testing with embedded processors and avionics systems
• Participate in formal verification and validation activities

Synthesis, Place & Route, and Timing Closure

• Perform synthesis, implementation and timing closure using Vivado
• Optimize resource utilization, power consumption, and performance through iterative design and analysis
• Generate and review timing constraints to ensure reliable performance across all environmental conditions
• Provide support in person and through documentation generation of findings and

• Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline with 5 years of related engineering experience; OR Master’s degree in a STEM discipline with 3 years of related experience; OR PhD in a STEM discipline with 1 year of related experience
• Digital circuit design experience, including simulation & schematic capture through test and integration
• Prior hands-on prototyping and debug experience testing complex digital subsystems, such as complex circuit card development involving FPGAs, and/or embedded processors, and/or high-speed interfaces
• Experience with AMD FPGAs and the Vivado tool (or equivalent tools)
• Experience with OVM/UVM Verification methodologies
• Ability to obtain and maintain US Government Secret Clearance
• Ability to obtain and maintain Program Access within a reasonable period of time, as determined by the Company

• Experience facilitating internal and customer collaboration to capture and enhance engineering artifacts
• Demonstrated experience with the full product life cycle (requirements, design, implementation, and test)
• Demonstrated ability to translate system performance and operational specifications into hardware requirements, design, and test specifications