Senior Firmware Engineer II/Principal (TS/SCI)

Rocket Lab Corporation • Chantilly, VA

5d • Onsite

About The Position

Rocket Lab’s Optical Systems division solves mission-critical space domain and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) challenges for Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC) customers. Our vision is to revolutionize the space-based payload market with innovative and novel designs for space, terrestrial, and airborne environments. Building on more than 20 years of electro-optical and infrared systems innovation from Geost, Optical Systems delivers solutions to the warfighter for responsive, scalable sensing solutions across all orbital domains. As a Senior Firmware Engineer II/Principal based at our Optical Systems sites in Tucson, AZ or Chantilly, VA, you will have the opportunity to support Tranche 3 of the U.S. Space Development Agency's (SDA) Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) using the latest FPGA technologies including Xilinx to support advanced Electro-Optical (EO/IR) technology. (Please note: this position can be hired at the Principal Firmware Engineer or Senior Firmware Engineer II level)

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering or electrical engineering or equivalent discipline with 8-12 years of experience
• Active TS/SCI security clearance
• Experience in digital firmware design
• Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering or electrical engineering or equivalent discipline with 12+ years of experience
• Active TS/SCI security clearance
• Experience in digital firmware design

Nice To Haves

• Experience with FPGAs and embedded systems in a radiation environment, including SEU/SEL impact and mitigation
• Experience in both creating IP from scratch in RTL, and integrating existing IP into RTL and block designs
• Familiarity with C, Python or MATLAB and/or experience translating algorithms from a scripted language to HDL
• Experience with software interfaces including interrupts and DMA
• Experience in project management, team leadership, and/or mentoring
• Experience with systems engineering methods including systems trades, requirements management, performance characterization, and interface management
• Experience with DDR4, Aurora, and high-speed transceiver design and verification
• Familiarity with AXI Stream and AXI Memory Mapped interfaces
• Embedded C/C++ software development for ARM processors and MCUs over the full stack including Linux
• Experience in FPGA- or ASIC-based image processing algorithms
• Ability to work under pressure and adhere to tight deadlines
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to build strong working relationships
• PCB design and schematic capture and layout with tools such as Altium Designer
• An ownership outlook with the desire to build lasting systems and a willingness to identify gaps, develop plans to address them, and engage stakeholders to fill them.

Responsibilities

• Work with the hardware design team on requirements.
• Complete FPGA logic design, coding, simulation, and testing.
• Support hardware and software development teams in bring-up and test of products.
• Provide subject-matter expertise regarding design and automated test development procedures to customers and production support team.
• Perform research and analysis of data, such as customer proposed specifications, datasheets, or manuals to determine design approach and/or feasibility.
• Execute debugging of the design in the lab.
• Perform synthesis, implementation, and timing analysis.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees