Principal Digital/Embedded Firmware Engineer

Leidos • St. Petersburg, FL

9d • 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. The engineer will contribute across the full product lifecycle, from requirements and architecture through integration, qualification testing, and transition to production.

The St. Petersburg facility develops, models, simulates, analyzes, prototypes, and tests advanced electronic systems, with a focus on embedded communications systems, Software Defined Radios, and Phased Array Antenna Systems for Department of Defense and commercial customers. The position works as part of a multidisciplinary engineering team and collaborates with firmware, software, RF, systems, and test engineering teams.

Requirements

• 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 and hardware implementation, integration and testing, embedded firmware/software architecture, technical documentation, and formal design reviews.
• Strong VHDL and FPGA/SoC design and implementation experience, including digital logic design 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 test-bench generation 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.
• U.S. citizenship.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Secret security clearance.

Nice To Haves

• 10 or more years of experience for Senior-level consideration.
• Active Secret clearance or ability to obtain a Top Secret clearance.
• Full-stack FPGA development experience with Xilinx UltraScale/UltraScale+ architectures, including RTL design and embedded C/C++ development for bare-metal, FreeRTOS, or embedded Linux environments such as PetaLinux.
• Experience designing and developing 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 such as digital filters, digital modulation, and up/down conversion in HDL designs.
• Experience with IP cores and modern processor interfaces such as Xilinx IP Cores, AXI4, and AXI-Stream.
• Experience designing, integrating, and testing electronic circuits in embedded systems, including digital, analog, and RF subsystems.
• 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; conduct synthesis and logic simulation; generate test benches; and perform functional testing and hardware debugging of FPGA/CPLD designs.
• Architect, implement, and test embedded firmware and software in FPGA-based digital designs, including signal processing, control logic, and high-speed interfaces across FPGAs, microcontrollers, microprocessors, and mixed-signal designs.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex hardware, firmware, software, and integration issues during prototype and production phases.
• Support SRR, PDR, and CDR design reviews, technical documentation, and configuration management processes.
• 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