Senior FPGA Design Engineer

We are seeking a talented Senior FPGA Design Engineer to lead the design and development of FPGA-based solutions for our motion control products, such as servo drives and position feedback sensors. In this role, you’ll tackle the challenge of building high-performance, real-time systems that integrate current loop motor control, signal processing, communication protocols, and CPU interfaces. You’ll guide FPGA development within a cross-functional team, shaping the technical direction of innovative industrial automation products. 

Based at our global headquarters in beautiful Radford, VA, this position offers a hands-on, team-oriented environment ideal for someone who thrives on solving tough problems and learning through collaboration. You’ll work alongside RTL, embedded software, and electronics engineers who blend practical engineering with agile practices to create high-quality products. Your contributions will include developing, debugging, and integrating FPGA features—everything from defining requirements and writing code to building self-checking testbenches, running synthesis and timing analysis, and aiding system integration.  

We’re looking for someone with strong problem-solving skills and a real passion for teamwork. If you’re excited to own complex designs, mentor others, and explore the limits of motion control technology, this role is a great fit. 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities 

Primary Responsibilities: 

• Architect, specify, design, develop, and test FPGA solutions using Verilog or VHDL on Xilinx FPGA and SoC platforms.  

• Implement communication protocols for communication with serial and networked devices. 

• Develop and optimize interfaces to power electronics (e.g., ADCs, DACs, PWM) and CPUs (e.g., AXI, SPI) for smooth system integration.  

• Lead FPGA design strategy, managing resource allocation, timing closure, and verification to achieve sub-microsecond timing capture and control loop response for real-time performance demands. 

Other Responsibilities: 

• Perform lab-based verification, integration, and troubleshooting of FPGA and circuit designs.  

• Build and maintain regression tests to ensure design reliability.  

• Design and apply digital signal processing (DSP) modules to analyze digital and analog sensor data, implement control loops, and build filters.  

• Work closely with power electronics, digital electronics, and firmware teams to align system-level functionality. 

Responsibilities will scale with experience. Additional tasks may be assigned as needed. 

Critical Competencies 

Key Competencies 

• RTL and FPGA Expertise: Mastery of Verilog and/or VHDL, with strong skills in simulation, synthesis, and debugging (e.g., Vivado, Quartus, ModelSim).  

• Electronics Interfacing: Solid grasp of FPGA integration with electronics (e.g., ADCs, DACs, PWM) and CPUs (e.g., AXI, SPI).  

• Ethernet and Serial Protocols: Implementing support for a variety of protocols.