Graduate Firmware​/FPGA Engineer

Graduate Firmware / FPGA Engineer – Leonardo

Location: Edinburgh, United Kingdom

At Leonardo, we’re looking for graduates who want to be part of something bigger—shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety. Joining the Leonardo Graduate Scheme gives you the opportunity to be part of the next generation of our business. You will be provided with a wealth of development opportunities in both virtual and applied working environments.

You will engage with challenging and exciting project work and deliver innovative business or technical solutions as part of a team of subject matter experts. Throughout the programme you will receive coaching and support from your team to achieve your objectives as well as your personal development goals. We are committed to developing our graduates into leading technical professionals and supporting you through your preferred route for chartership.

Our 18‑month Graduate Programme gives you the opportunity to work on exciting and challenging projects alongside subject matter experts. On joining, you will receive a starting salary of £34,000 per annum, plus a £1,000 welcome bonus. You’ll also be eligible for a £1,000 exit bonus upon successful completion of the programme, and may be eligible for a Temporary Accommodation Allowance (TAA) subject to specific criteria.

You will be expected to spend at least three or four days each week on site, to integrate with your team and maximise your learning experience by designing, testing or integrating hardware on the Edinburgh site.

• Be encouraged to gain experience of all aspects of the development lifecycle, including requirements analysis, design, implementation, integration, applied research and test.
• Closely liaise with engineers from other disciplines such as Systems, Software and Mechanical. Opportunities may also arise to interface with customers and end users.
• Work on the design, development, and verification of firmware and digital systems using FPGAs, which are central to our advanced electronic systems.
• Collaborate on the development of high‑performance digital signal processing solutions and real‑time systems for a variety of avionic sensor systems.
• Learn to write efficient, reliable, and maintainable code using hardware description languages (HDLs) such as VHDL.
• Gain experience in simulation, debugging and testing your designs in laboratory environments, ensuring optimal performance in demanding environments and optimising firmware designs to improve performance, efficiency and reliability.
• Design, implement and verify FPGA firmware for complex embedded systems, ensuring adherence to performance and safety requirements.
• Document and present design solutions and progress to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Collaborate with Software, Electronics and Systems engineers to ensure smooth integration of firmware components.
• Develop test plans and simulation environments to verify designs meet functional and timing requirements.
• Contribute to technical reviews; your role may even take you across the UK or abroad for technical reviews.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives for hardware design processes and methodologies.

We are looking for graduates who are enthusiastic about hardware design and eager to work in a fast‑paced, collaborative environment.

• Minimum of a 2:2 Bachelor’s, Integrated Masters degree, or higher degree (MSc or PhD) in Electrical Engineering, Electronics or a related discipline.
• Preferred degrees for the Graduate Firmware Engineer role are Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Information and Communication Engineering, Computer Communication and Networks, Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures, Cyber Security, Mathematics and Communications Engineering.
• A strong interest in firmware and FPGA development. Basic familiarity with HDLs such as VHDL is desirable but not required as training will be provided.
• Strong problem‑solving abilities, excellent communication skills and a desire to work collaboratively in a team. A proactive approach to learning new technologies is crucial.

This role is subject to pre‑employment…