Senior Firmware Engineer, Space
Boulder · Boulder, CO (CO-01) · USD 165,000-218,000 · 8+ years experience · Full-time · Posted Sep 22, 2026
At a glance
- Experience
- 8+ years experience
- Employment
- Full-time
- Location
- Boulder · Boulder, CO (CO-01)
- Salary
- USD 165,000-218,000 · Base salary
About the role
- The Space Imaging team is seeking a Senior Firmware Engineer to work closely with an interdisciplinary technical team to define space EO/IR payload electrical architectures, build prototypes, perform ground testing, and mature the prototypes into flight hardware products.
- The role involves leading small teams of engineers from concept through system definition and development as needed.
Responsibilities
- Lead FPGA architecture, standards, development and review processes
- Designing, architecting, simulating, and integrating VHDL designs into Fpgas or Systems on Chip (SoC) for optimized performance, resource utilization, and power efficiency
- Collaborating with multidisciplinary teams to ensure seamless integration of the firmware with the overall system, including processor bring-up and board support packages
- Developing robust test benches in VHDL/Verilog and utilizing lab tools such as oscilloscopes and logic analyzers for rigorous testing and validation of designs against functional specifications and performance requirements
- Optimizing the algorithms for hardware acceleration, including MIPS optimization and efficient use of on-chip bus protocols like AXI or AXI-Stream
Requirements
- A Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field
- 8+ years of experience developing HDL firmware for FPGA devices
- Expertise in VHDL and/or Verilog/SystemVerilog for RTL (Register Transfer Level) design
- Experience with industry-standard FPGA design tools such as Xilinx Vivado or Intel Quartus
- Strong hardware/software debugging skills using standard lab equipment
- Proficiency with version control systems (e.g., Git) for collaborative development
- U.S. Person status is required as this position needs to access export controlled data
- Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance
Preferred qualifications
- Demonstrated experience designing with multi-gigabit SERDES, DDR memory busses, Ethernet MAC and PHY interfaces, Fpgas, and common communication busses like SPI and I2C
- Embedded software development experience with the use of timers, interrupts, hardware peripherals such as SPI controllers and ADCs
- Knowledge of embedded Linux development, including device trees, hardware drivers, bootloaders, and basic Unix/Linux tools
- Familiar with common programming languages like Python and MATLAB
- Familiarity with infrared image sensor technology
Benefits
- Highly competitive equity grants included in the majority of full time offers
- Top-tier benefits for full-time employees supporting health, recovery, and whatever comes next
Skills
- VHDL
- Verilog
- SystemVerilog
- Xilinx Vivado
- Intel Quartus
- Git
- AXI
- AXI-Stream
- SERDES
- Ethernet
- SPI
- I2C
Show all 15 skills
- Embedded Linux
- Python
- MATLAB
