RF Design Engineer; FPGA

Position: RF Design Engineer (FPGA)
About Us:

At Quartermaster AI, we believe the ocean should be a safe and sustainably managed resource for all. By leveraging cutting-edge AI, distributed sensing, and resilient data systems, we unlock capabilities that were only recently impossible. Our distributed open-ocean systems enable vessels and coastal infrastructure to sense, compute, and communicate, enhancing maritime domain awareness for those who need it most.

Job Description:

We are seeking a highly experienced FPGA and SDR Systems Engineer (7+ years experience) to design, implement, and maintain secure, resilient, and scalable data processing systems supporting mission-critical maritime and security applications.

This role requires deep expertise in FPGA development and implementation, high-speed digital signal processing (DSP), and implementation of complex Software-Defined Radio (SDR) pipelines on modern platforms. The ideal candidate has experience working with government contractors, military systems, or sensor networks and understands the operational demands of real-time, high-availability data platforms.

Familiarity with streaming architectures, SDR/radio systems, radar pipelines, maritime domain awareness systems, or military data management is strongly preferred.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, implement, and verify high-speed digital logic and DSP algorithms (e.g., filtering, equalization, FFTs, DDCs) in VHDL for FPGA targets.
• Develop and integrate complex software-defined radio pipelines, managing digital data transfer and processing, including architecting the data handoff between an SDR/FPGA, GPU-accelerated ML, and cloud.
• Focus on hardware-level design choices to achieve highly accurate timing synchronization across a distributed sensor network.
• Prototype, test, validate, and troubleshoot high-speed digital and mixed-signal systems using lab instrumentation (e.g., high-speed oscilloscopes, logic analyzers).
• Integrate high-speed data acquisition interfaces (ADCs/DACs) with FPGAs and embedded Linux.
• Support ruggedized deployments in maritime, airborne, or tactical environments.
• Drive continuous improvements in performance, efficiency, manufacturability, and reliability.

Qualifications (Required):

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or related field.
• 7+ years of experience in FPGA design, digital hardware development, and high-speed DSP implementation.
• Strong proficiency in VHDL and experience with the AMD/Xilinx Vivado toolchain..
• Experience with the AMD/Xilinx Zynq Ultra Scale+ architecture.
• DSP algorithm design and implementation (e.g., filtering, demodulation, equalization, FFTs, DDCs, beam forming)
• Implementation of direction finding techniques, CUAS/EW experience a strong plus.
• Deep foundation in digital logic, timing analysis, clock domain crossing, high-speed interfaces, and DSP theory (e.g., filter design, decimation, modulation schemes).
• Expertise in high-speed digital design, including:
  • Experience with multi-gigabit transceivers (MGTs) and protocols (e.g., PCIe, multi-gigabit Ethernet)
  • Design with high-speed I/O (DDR/SDR), including managing trace skew, clock/data synchronization, and termination.
  • Proficiency with custom serializer/deserializer (SERDES) chains using primitives.
  • Off-chip DDR memory interfacing
• Familiarity with FPGA architectures and optimizing resource utilization (on-chip memory, registers, LUTs, DSP blocks, etc.)
• Proven experience writing high-quality, reusable, readable, and debuggable code, along with self-checking test benches.
• Strong documentation and communication skills

Qualifications (Preferred):

• Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field with a focus on DSP or digital systems.
• Familiarity with Software-Defined Radio data standards
• Familiarity with radar systems, electronic warfare (EW), ISR systems, or maritime RF applications
• Experience designing ruggedized hardware for maritime, airborne, or tactical deployments.

Work Environment:

• Secure, mission-driven engineering environment.
• Collaboration with cross-functional technical and operational teams.
• Occasional schedule flexibility required for mission support.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary
• Opportunity to work on mission-critical maritime and defense technology