Senior FPGA Engineer

Welcome to Planet. We believe in using space to help life on Earth.

Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest constellation of imaging satellites in history. This constellation delivers an unprecedented dataset of empirical information via a revolutionary cloud-based platform to authoritative figures in commercial, environmental, and humanitarian sectors. We are both a space company and data company all rolled into one.

Customers and users across the globe use Planet's data to develop new technologies, drive revenue, power research, and solve our world's toughest obstacles.

As we control every component of hardware design, manufacturing, data processing, and software engineering, our office is a truly inspiring mix of experts from a variety of domains.

We have a people-centric approach toward culture and community and we strive to iterate in a way that puts our team members first and prepares our company for growth. Join Planet and be a part of our mission to change the way people see the world.

Planet is a global company with employees working remotely world wide and joining us from offices in San Francisco, Washington DC, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, and The Netherlands.

About the Role:

Join a dynamic and innovative team at Planet, where you'll play a pivotal role in the design of our FPGA-based systems, which are fundamental to imaging operations of our cutting-edge satellites. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to our next generation platform by defining new modules, developing specifications, and implementing your designs. You will collaborate with electrical engineers, RF engineers, camera engineers, and firmware engineers to deliver fully validated designs before they get launched into orbit.

The ideal candidate is passionate about Planet's mission and thrives in a collaborative, fast-paced environment. This role will appeal to candidates who are looking for opportunities to have a large impact on new and highly visible products.

This is a full-time, hybrid role which will require you to work from our San Francisco office 3 days per week.

Impact You'll Own:

• Design custom FPGA-based data pipelines, DSP, and digital comms; integrate 3rd party IP; perform timing analysis and closure.
• Verify your design in simulation and in the lab and support automated validation.
• Collaborate with EEs and firmware engineers to develop custom hardware and software around your designs.
• Contribute to defining FPGA architectures, selecting components, analyzing performance.

What You Bring:

• 6+ years of experience designing, verifying, and validating FPGA-based digital designs.
• Expertise in writing System Verilog RTL.
• Expertise in scripting and programming (Python, C++, shell).
• Hands-on test and debugging experience with oscilloscopes and logic analyzers.
• Advanced knowledge of version control systems (eg., git) and managing releases to production.
• Ability to read and provide input into electrical schematics.

What Makes You Stand Out:

• Experience in hardware / software co-design.
• Experience with HLS and Xilinx Versal devices.
• Experience with imaging sensor interfaces and image processing pipelines.
• Experience with designing pipelines for AI/ML, DSP, or comms systems.
• Experience integrating high speed serial protocols including PCIe/NVMe, MIPI, Camera Link, JESD
  204B, etc.

Final date to receive applications:February 18th, 2026. 11:59pm PST

EAR/ITAR Requirements:

This position requires access to export-controlled information, and as such, employment (or hiring of a contractor) is contingent upon the candidate's ability to access all applicable export-controlled information without additional export licensing being required by the Bureau of Industry and Security and/or the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls.

Benefits While Working at Planet:

These offerings are dependent on employment type and geographical location, based upon applicable law or company policy.

• Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision plans
• Health Savings Account (HSA) with a company contribution
• Generous Paid Time Off in addition to holidays and company-wide days off
• 16 Weeks of Paid Parental Leave
• Wellness Program and Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Home Office…