Senior FPGA Prototyping Engineer - Hardware

NVIDIA•Us, CA

3d•$196,000 - $368,000•Onsite

About The Position

NVIDIA is seeking a Senior FPGA Prototyping Engineer to join its Emulation team onsite in Santa Clara, California. The role focuses on building FPGA prototypes of next-generation GPUs and SoCs on standard FPGA prototyping platforms, improving prototype performance, and supporting customers who use the prototypes. The work involves coordination with teams across geographies in a fast-paced environment and resolving complex engineering problems. The engineer will understand the design and its implementation, define configurations, develop or modify bring-up and testing infrastructure, and verify design correctness. The role requires close coordination with architects, designers, verification engineers, and software teams. The position requires a BS or equivalent experience in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field with 12+ years of experience, or an MS with 10+ years of proven FPGA prototyping experience. NVIDIA lists base salary ranges of $196,000–$310,500 for Level 5 and $232,000–$368,000 for Level 6. The role is eligible for equity and benefits. Applications will be accepted at least until October 24, 2026. This posting is for an existing vacancy.

Requirements

BS or equivalent experience in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field with 12+ years of experience, or an MS with 10+ years of proven experience in FPGA prototyping.
Good understanding of FPGA prototyping architecture, devices, flows, and tools.
Experience with FPGA prototyping backend flows, including synthesis, place and route, and timing closure, with emphasis on Synopsys ProtoCompiler or Siemens VPS and Xilinx Vivado.
Exposure to ASIC design and verification tools such as VCS or equivalent, Verdi, and GDB.
Knowledge of Verilog, SystemVerilog, and digital design concepts.
Good debugging and problem-solving skills.
Hands-on experience with lab FPGA debug methodologies and tools such as Identify or ChipScope, and lab debug equipment such as oscilloscopes and logic analyzers.

Nice To Haves

Scripting knowledge in Perl, shell, or Tcl.
Good documentation, communication, and interpersonal skills.
Experience with memory bring-up, including LPDDR5/6 or DDR5/6, CXL/PCIe, and/or high-speed interfaces such as USB4/3.
Prior hardware emulation or prototyping experience using Synopsys HAPS or Siemens ProFPGA for a high-performance processor or SoC.

Responsibilities

Build FPGA prototypes by making RTL FPGA-friendly, partitioning the design, and taking it through synthesis and place and route.
Improve prototype performance, analyze timing, and generate bitstreams.
Bring up designs on FPGA prototyping platforms and troubleshoot problems.
Release prototypes to customers and support them when they encounter problems.
Understand design and implementation, define configurations, and develop or modify bring-up and testing infrastructure.
Verify design correctness.
Coordinate with architects, designers, verification engineers, and software teams.