Senior FPGA Engineer II

Job Summary

Senior FPGA Engineer II – Optical Systems division, focusing on the U.S. Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). Position located in Littleton, CO.

• Work with the hardware design team on requirements.
• Complete FPGA logic design, coding, simulation, and testing.
• Support hardware and software development teams in bring‑up and testing of products.
• Provide subject‑matter expertise regarding design and automated test development procedures to customers and production support team.
• Perform research and analysis of data, such as customer proposed specifications, datasheets, or manuals to determine design approach and/or feasibility.
• Execute debugging of the design in the lab.
• Perform synthesis, implementation, and timing analysis.

• Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, electrical engineering, or equivalent discipline with 8+ years of experience.
• Experience in FPGA firmware design with VHDL.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government Security Clearance.

• Experience with Xilinx/AMD Versal architecture.
• Experience with FPGAs and embedded systems in a radiation environment, including SEU/SEL impact and mitigation.
• Experience in FPGA‑or‑ASIC‑based image processing algorithms.
• Experience in both creating IP from scratch in RTL and integrating existing IP into RTL and block designs.
• Familiarity with C, Python or MATLAB and/or experience translating algorithms from a scripted language to HDL.
• Experience with software interfaces including interrupts and DMA.
• Experience with DDR4, Aurora, and high‑speed transceiver design and verification.
• Familiarity with AXI Stream and AXI Memory Mapped interfaces.
• PCB design and schematic capture and layout with tools such as Altium Designer.
• Active TS/SCI security clearance.

Base salary range (CO only): $131,300 USD – $218,700 USD.

Rocket Lab offers stock options, cash incentives, employee stock purchase program, medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k) retirement plan, paid vacation, holidays, sick leave, paid parental leave, and additional discounts and perks.

Rocket Lab provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.

Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful U.S. permanent resident, or otherwise eligible for required authorizations under U.S. Government space technology export regulations (ITAR).