Senior​/Principal FPGA Designer - Electrical Engineer, Onsite

Sandia National Laboratories is the nation’s premier science and engineering lab for national security and technology innovation, with teams of specialists focused on cutting-edge work in a broad array of areas. Some of the main reasons we love our jobs:

Challenging work with amazing impact that contributes to security, peace, and freedom worldwide

Extraordinary co-workers

Some of the best tools, equipment, and research facilities in the world

Career advancement and enrichment opportunities

Flexible work arrangements for many positions include 9/80 (work 80 hours every two weeks, with every other Friday off) and 4/10 (work 4 ten-hour days each week) compressed workweeks, part‑time work, and telecommuting (a mix of onsite work and working from home)

Generous vacation, strong medical and other benefits, competitive 401k, learning opportunities, relocation assistance and amenities aimed at creating a solid work/life balance*

World‑changing technologies. Life‑changing careers. Learn more about Sandia at: http://www.sandia.gov

* These benefits vary by job classification.

What Your Job Will Be Like:

The Advanced RF Systems department (5365) is seeking a highly motivated FPGA design Engineer to join its team. This position focuses on providing specialized FPGA expertise to aid in the development and fielding of communications and electronic warfare systems. You will be joining a multi‑disciplinary team focused on delivering solutions to national security challenges. The ideal candidate will possess strong teamwork skills and a background in hardware design languages (HDL).

On any given day, you may be called on to:

Develop and incorporate innovative technologies including efforts to:

Design, simulate and implement synthesizable RTL for high performance FPGAs

Create original designs as well as modify and improve existing FPGA designs

Analyze, design, and develop communication and electronic warfare (EW) systems, subsystems, and modules

Work closely with both hardware and software engineers to define and integrate new FPGA designs

Negotiate technical and programmatic requirements with customers

Troubleshoot problems and support anomaly resolution activities

Build and maintain relationships with customers, partners and influencers including efforts to:

Interact with customers and stakeholders

Represent Sandia within the technical community

Engage with commercial or industry partners

Occasionally travel to engage partners

Work with technical teams to ensure expectations and requirements are met

Due to the nature of the work, the selected applicant will be required to work onsite. Relocation provided for those who qualify.

Salary Range:

$117,500 - $235,700

* Salary range is estimated, and actual salary will be determined after consideration of the selected candidate's experience and qualifications, and application of any approved geographic salary differential.

Qualifications We Require:

A Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline and five (5) years of directly relevant experience, or an equivalent combination of directly relevant education and engineering or scientific experience that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform independent research and development

Ability to obtain and maintain a DOE Q clearance and SCI clearance, which may require a polygraph test

Qualifications We Desire:

The ideal R&D S&E Electrical Engineer candidate will in addition possess the following:

Graduate degree in Electrical Engineering or a highly related field where an independent research project was a graduation requirement (e.g., independent project, thesis, or dissertation).

Ability to work independently and collaborate well in a multidisciplinary team of designers and test engineers.

Outstanding verbal and written skills, including the ability to develop and present briefings that are clear and compelling.

Also, for this posting we are seeking individuals with the following experience:

FPGA programming and verification experience

Deep fluency with Hardware Design Languages (Verilog, VHDL, etc.)

8 plus years of related experience in the following areas:

Development and verification of custom RTL for FPGA design (power and area optimized)

Timing Closure & Analysis

Use of High-Speed Interfaces & Protocols

Development and use of testbench code for firmware validation

Troubleshooting of firmware using simulation software

Use of Microsemi Libero and/or Xilinx Vivado

Embedded system design

Experienced in…