Principal Digital/Embedded Firmware Engineer

Leidos • St. Petersburg, FL

10d • $107,900 - $195,050 • Onsite

About The Position

The Defense Systems Group at Leidos is hiring a Principal Digital Firmware Design Engineer at its St. Petersburg, Florida facility. The role supports development of advanced, mission-critical military communications systems, including the design, integration, testing, and optimization of secure, ruggedized electronic hardware and firmware for defense applications. The engineer will contribute across the product lifecycle, from requirements development and architecture through integration, qualification testing, and transition to production.

The St. Petersburg facility designs, develops, models, simulates, analyzes, prototypes, and tests advanced electronic systems. Its focus areas include embedded communications systems, Software Defined Radios (SDR), and Phased Array Antenna Systems for Department of Defense and commercial customers.

Requirements

• U.S. citizenship.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Secret Security Clearance.
• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• At least 8 years of experience in embedded hardware and digital design.
• Experience supporting the full product development lifecycle, including requirements analysis, system design, hardware implementation, integration and test, embedded firmware/software architecture, technical documentation, and formal design reviews.
• Strong VHDL and FPGA/SoC design and implementation experience.
• Digital logic design experience using VHDL or Verilog with SoCs, FPGAs, CPLDs, and/or microcontrollers.
• Experience with modern vendor design tools, such as Xilinx Vivado, Vitis, STM, Libero SoC, or Lattice Diamond.
• Experience with simulation and testbench generation using tools such as Xilinx Simulator, Aldec Active-HDL, Riviera-PRO, ModelSim, or similar.
• Knowledge of RISC microprocessor architectures, such as ARM Cortex, MicroBlaze, PowerPC, or RISC-V.
• C/C++ software development experience for embedded, real-time systems.
• Experience integrating and troubleshooting digital subsystems within embedded systems, digital interfaces such as I2C, SPI, RS-232/422, USB, or Ethernet, or ADC/DAC devices and their performance characteristics.
• Hands-on laboratory experience debugging hardware using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and related tools.
• Understanding of embedded-system target trade-offs, including FPGA, SoC, microcontroller, RTOS, and bare-metal options, to develop cost-effective architectures.

Nice To Haves

• Active Secret or Top Secret security clearance.
• At least 10 years of experience for the Senior level.
• Full-stack FPGA development experience with Xilinx UltraScale/UltraScale+ architectures, including RTL design in VHDL/Verilog and embedded C/C++ development for bare-metal, FreeRTOS, or embedded Linux environments such as PetaLinux.
• Design and development experience with other FPGA/CPLD vendors, such as Microsemi, ST-Micro, or Lattice.
• Experience with high-speed interfaces or protocols such as PCIe, JESD204B, LVDS, and SERDES.
• Experience with simulation and modeling tools such as MATLAB, Python, or LabVIEW.
• Experience implementing signal-processing concepts in HDL designs, such as digital filters, digital modulation, or up/down conversion.
• Experience with IP cores and modern processor interfaces such as Xilinx IP Cores, AXI4, or AXI-Stream.
• Experience designing, integrating, and testing digital, analog, and RF electronic circuits within embedded systems.
• Experience developing ruggedized or military communications systems.
• Experience with the Cooperative Engagement Capability Naval communications system.
• Experience transitioning prototype designs into production hardware.
• Familiarity with schematic-capture tools such as Altium, Cadence Allegro/OrCAD, Ki-CAD, or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Participate in a multidisciplinary engineering team developing secure, high-performance military communications hardware and firmware.
• Analyze and decompose system-level requirements into detailed hardware design specifications with full traceability.
• Perform logic design, write VHDL code, synthesize and simulate logic, generate test benches, conduct functional testing, and debug FPGA/CPLD designs.
• Architect, implement, and test embedded firmware and software within FPGA-based digital designs, including signal processing, control logic, and high-speed interfaces across FPGA, microcontroller, microprocessor, and mixed-signal platforms.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex hardware, firmware/software, and integration issues through prototype and production phases.
• Support system requirements, preliminary, and critical design reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR), technical documentation, and configuration management.
• Provide technical input for cost estimates, schedules, and risk assessments.
• Collaborate with firmware, software, RF, systems, and test engineering teams throughout the development lifecycle.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal