System-on-Chip Design Engineer

SoC Design Engineer

Job Type: Full-Time, Exempt

Location: On-Site

At our client company, they are committed to attracting and nurturing diverse, high-performing talent who are passionate about their work. Their employees share a common purpose—supporting their customers’ missions while pursuing their own professional growth. They foster an inclusive and engaging workplace culture where innovation, collaboration, and work-life balance thrive. Core to their values is a steadfast commitment to excellence, community engagement, and integrity in everything they do.

About the Company:

Our client is a leading independent provider of advanced sensing and navigation solutions for the aerospace, defense, commercial, and industrial sectors. They drive innovation across a wide range of high-performance applications and are actively transitioning their product architecture from traditional FPGA-based designs toward modern SoC-based solutions.

Position Summary:

We are seeking an SoC Design Engineer to play a critical role in leading the transition of our high-performance sensing systems from FPGA-based firmware to integrated SoC-based solutions. You will design, verify, and implement SoC logic, embedded firmware, and associated digital systems, working closely with hardware, systems, and manufacturing teams to bring designs from first prototype through volume production. This is a hands-on engineering role suited to someone who enjoys solving hard timing, verification, architecture, and firmware-integration problems across the full product life cycle, and who is comfortable supporting system integration, bring-up, and debug in the lab. Exposure to board-level hardware design is a plus, but the core focus of this role is SoC architecture, FPGA-to-SoC migration, and firmware. This is a 100% in-office role at our primary facility, with occasional support at a secondary site. Expected travel frequency is <10%.

Key Responsibilities:

SoC Design & Development

• Design, develop, and test SoC-based logic and firmware using VHDL, Verilog, or SystemVerilog.
• Architect and implement SoC-based solutions using industry-standard tools (Xilinx Vivado, Intel/Altera Quartus, Microsemi Libero IDE, and related SoC flows) and simulation environments (ModelSim) to meet project requirements.
• Lead the migration of existing FPGA-based designs and firmware to SoC platforms, defining the target architecture, partitioning strategy, and integration approach.
• Implement digital signal processing components (digital filters, transforms, multipliers, and other mathematical operations) and embedded software for SoC-based systems.
• Optimize SoC implementations for speed, power, and resource utilization.

Verification & Validation

• Conduct simulation, verification, and debugging of SoC designs, decomposing requirements to ensure traceability to digital design verification tests.
• Support system integration, hardware bring-up, and testing, using lab equipment (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power supplies, multimeters, temperature chambers) to debug and resolve issues during the FPGA-to-SoC transition and ongoing development.

Manufacturing & Production Support

• Assist with early-build fabrication support, help transfer SoC-based designs into manufacturing, and support the scale-up to full production volume.
• Apply DFM/DFT principles and support manufacturing test development and EMC compliance activities.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Documentation

• Collaborate with firmware, hardware, and systems teams to ensure seamless integration of SoC logic and firmware across the full product life cycle, from concept through production, with a strong focus on enabling the company’s architectural transition.
• Develop and maintain documentation for SoC and firmware designs, implementations, migration strategies, and test results, and ensure compliance with industry standards and best practices.
• Perform a wide range of complex engineering work with minimal supervision.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in FPGA/SoC design, simulation, and firmware development for embedded systems.
• Proficiency in VHDL, Verilog, or SystemVerilog for digital and SoC design.
• Experience with FPGA/SoC development tools (Xilinx Vivado, Microsemi/Actel Libero IDE, Intel/Altera Quartus, Lattice) and SoC devices (e.g., Microchip PolarFire or equivalent).
• Strong understanding of embedded systems and real-time programming, with proficiency in C/C++ for firmware development.
• Experience with signal processing and high-speed communication interfaces (Min: SPI, I2C; preferred: PCIe, Ethernet).
• Ability to design and implement advanced DSP algorithms.
• Knowledge of FPGA/SoC verification and testing methodologies.
• Demonstrated experience or strong capability in transitioning designs from discrete FPGA implementations to integrated SoC solutions.
• Exceptional problem-solving and analytical skills, with the ability to work independently and collaboratively, and excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship (U.S. citizenship or Permanent Residence)

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience designing mixed-signal hardware circuits, including ADCs/DACs, clock circuits, filters, high-speed memory (DDR), and communication interfaces.
• Familiarity with schematic review, component selection, board-level architecture, and PCB-level signal integrity and timing practices.
• Experience with SoC FPGA architecture and development utilizing AI/ML acceleration.
• Proficiency in Python; knowledge of MATLAB for simulation and analysis.
• Familiarity with design-for-manufacturability and design-for-test practices, production test development, and EMC compliance requirements.
• Experience supporting products from prototype through volume production.
• Understanding of high-performance sensing or inertial systems.