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Job Title: Principal FPGA Engineer

Job Description

Join our team as a Principal FPGA Engineer, where you will serve as a technical authority for FPGA design and verification across products and missions. This role involves defining and enforcing FPGA design standards, driving reuse and modularity across programs, and ensuring that all FPGA releases meet flight quality, reliability, and verification expectations. You will mentor and guide teams to deliver robust, mission-critical designs.

Responsibilities

+ Define and maintain company-wide FPGA development standards for HDL design, synthesis, timing, and verification.

+ Lead FPGA architecture, design, and verification activities for flight and ground systems.

+ Drive reuse, modularity, and configurability across FPGA platforms to improve maintainability and reduce verification effort.

+ Own key interface contracts and performance/error budgets between FPGA, software, and electrical domains.

+ Conduct design and readiness reviews; make go/no-go recommendations grounded in data and test coverage.

+ Lead investigations into rare or systemic failures and implement corrective design actions.

+ Mentor engineers, providing guidance on design reviews, timing closure, and test methodology.

+ Support technical capture and proposals as a subject-matter expert in FPGA architecture and assurance.

Essential Skills

+ Minimum of 10-15 years of FPGA/RTL design and verification experience with flight or high-reliability systems.

+ Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Computer, or related Engineering field (Master’s preferred).

+ Proven expertise in FPGA architecture, synthesis, timing closure, and verification flows.

+ Experience leading major FPGA subsystems and coordinating with software/electrical teams.

+ Strong communication skills and ability to lead technical reviews and mentor staff.

+ Experience with VHDL programming language.

+ Experience designing power converters for Space, Military Vehicles, or UAVs (power analog).

Additional Skills & Qualifications

+ Experience with radiation-tolerant design, SEU mitigation, and DO-254-like assurance processes.

+ Familiarity with formal verification and property checking tools.

+ System-level experience with firmware/software co-design and performance modeling.

+ Broad vendor experience (Microchip, Xilinx, Intel, Lattice, etc.).

Work Environment

The role offers hybrid flexibility, requiring candidates to be local and available to work onsite. Our culture emphasizes empowerment, minimal management oversight, and a balance between hard work and personal life. We provide a supportive environment for engineers passionate about their work while valuing time spent outside the office.

Job Type & Location

This is a Contract to Hire position based out of Sterling, VA.

Pay and Benefits

The pay range for this position is $75.00 - $90.00/hr.

Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on your job classification and length of employment. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to specific elections, plan, or program terms. If eligible, the benefits available for this temporary role may include the following: • Medical, dental & vision • Critical Illness, Accident, and Hospital • 401(k) Retirement Plan – Pre-tax and Roth post-tax contributions available • Life Insurance (Voluntary Life & AD&D for the employee and dependents) • Short and long-term disability • Health Spending Account (HSA) • Transportation benefits • Employee Assistance Program • Time Off/Leave (PTO, Vacation or Sick Leave)

Workplace Type

This is a fully onsite position in Sterling,VA.

Application Deadline

This position is anticipated to close on Jan 23, 2026.

About Actalent

Actalent is a global leader in engineering and sciences services and talent solutions. We help visionary companies advance their engineering and science initiatives through access to specialized experts who drive scale, innovation and speed to market. With a network of almost 30,000 consultants and more than 4,500 clients across the U.S., Canada, Asia and Europe, Actalent serves many of the Fortune 500.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and will consider all applications without regard to race, sex, age, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information or any characteristic protected by law.

If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation, such as the modification or adjustment of the job application process or interviewing due to a disability, please email [email protected] (%[email protected]) for other accommodation options.