Senior Electrical Engineer Firmware

RTX•Goleta, CA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

We are seeking a Senior Electrical Engineer – FPGA/Firmware to design and integrate high-performance digital processing solutions for airborne Electronic Warfare platforms in Goleta, CA. This role sits close to the hardware and is ideal for engineers who enjoy taking FPGA designs from concept through timing closure, lab integration, and flight-testing. Why this role matters: Because threats are evolving faster than ever, and the aircraft protecting our warfighters must be able to sense, process, and respond in real time. The FPGA and firmware you design will sit at the heart of that mission—turning raw RF signals into actionable insight in microseconds. Your work won’t live in a lab demo; it will help keep pilots and platforms safe in contested environments. This position is onsite in Goleta, CA.

Requirements

Typically requires a degree in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) and a minimum of 5 years of prior relevant experience.
Experience with FPGA development tools such as (AMD/Xilinx (Vivado) and/or Intel/Altera (Quartus)).
Experience in VHDL and/or Verilog.
Experience taking designs through simulation, place-and-route, and timing closure.
The ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government issued security clearance is required. U.S. citizenship is required, as only U.S. citizens are eligible for a security clearance
Active and existing security clearance required after day 1

Nice To Haves

Experience with multi-clock designs and clock domain crossing (CDC).
Experience with high-speed digital signal processing (DSP) implementations in FPGA.
Experience with model-based design tools (MATLAB, HDL Coder, etc.).
Familiarity with RFSoC or high-speed data converter platforms.
Experience in defense, radar, EW, or high-performance signal processing systems.
Active Secret clearance

Responsibilities

Design and implement high-speed FPGA solutions using VHDL and/or Verilog (SystemVerilog a plus) or model-based design such as MATLAB HDL Coder.
Participate in the FPGA development lifecycle: requirements → RTL/model-based implementation → simulation → place-and-route → timing closure → hardware integration
Develop multi-clock, high-throughput digital designs with strong emphasis on:
Timing closure at high clock speeds
Clock domain crossing (CDC)
Data paths and handshaking between processing blocks
Implement and integrate DSP functions such as channelization, filtering, pulse estimation, and real-time signal processing pipelines
Contribute to systems that digitize RF signals and generate Pulse Descriptor Words (PDWs) for downstream software processing
Perform development on FPGA dev boards and migrate designs to deliverable hardware
Support integration, test events, and lab validation using equipment such as:
Signal generators
Spectrum analyzers
Logic analyzers
Oscilloscopes
Power meters
Collaborate across multidisciplinary teams including RF, systems, mechanical and software engineers