Principal Digital Hardware Engineer

HIDDEN LEVEL INC•Syracuse, NY

21h•$162,000 - $210,000•Hybrid

About The Position

At Hidden Level, we’re building the future of airspace awareness through cutting-edge RF sensing technology. Our mission is to make the world safer—whether it’s protecting troops, securing infrastructure, or enabling smarter cities. We design, manufacture, and deploy advanced sensor systems that deliver real-time insights for defense and commercial applications. As we expand, we're looking for a Principal Digital Hardware Engineer who will apply their expertise to shape digital hardware strategy, lead development of next-generation sensing platforms, and support customer integration and adoption activities. This role will influence hardware architecture across multiple products and programs while providing technical leadership throughout the product lifecycle from concept development through deployment and sustainment.

Requirements

Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical efforts spanning multiple products, programs, and engineering disciplines
Strong technical judgment with the ability to balance near-term execution against long-term technology objectives
Proven ability to influence technical direction and drive architectural decisions
Excellent communication and collaboration skills with the ability to engage engineers, customers, and leadership
Passion for mentoring engineers and advancing technical excellence across the organization
Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related technical field
15+ years of professional experience
Expert knowledge of digital hardware architectures, FPGA-based systems, and high-performance embedded processing platforms
Extensive experience designing digital and mixed-signal hardware including FPGAs, SoCs, high-speed converters, memory systems, and communication interfaces
Experience with VHDL and/or Verilog and modern FPGA development environments including Vivado
Deep understanding of high-speed digital design, signal integrity considerations, and hardware verification methodologies
Experience developing systems supporting digital signal processing, software-defined radios, communication systems, radar systems, or advanced sensing platforms
Demonstrated success leading architecture development and technical decision-making for complex hardware systems
Ability to travel 10%

Nice To Haves

Experience with Altium Designer
Experience with Communication and Sensor Systems, Digital Signal Processing, Software Defined Radios, and RF System Design
Experience with MATLAB, Python, Bash, and Linux
Experience supporting product transition to manufacturing
Experience contributing to technology roadmaps and product strategy

Responsibilities

Lead the development of digital hardware architectures for next-generation sensing, communication, and signal processing systems
Define technical direction and architecture standards for FPGA, SoC, and digital hardware development across products and programs
Collaborate with company leadership, program leadership, and engineering teams to advance overall product capabilities and technical roadmaps
Architect complex FPGA and digital processing solutions utilizing modern Xilinx platforms including Ultrascale+ and RFSoC devices
Serve as a technical point of contact and subject matter expert for digital hardware technologies across internal and external stakeholders
Lead technical reviews and provide guidance on hardware architectures, FPGA implementations, verification strategies, and design trade studies
Evaluate and drive adoption of emerging technologies to increase engineering design efficiency and improve system capability, performance, manufacturability, and scalability
Provide professional mentorship and technical leadership to engineering teams
Support customer engagements, technical proposals, business development activities, and technology demonstrations
Guide integration, verification, and validation activities at subsystem and system levels