FPGA Engineer - Design and Verification

You’ll be involved in:

• Implementing, simulating and testing FPGA logic.
• Building, maintaining and running automated SystemVerilog/UVM testbenches.
• Helping to develop structured test cases and verification plans.
• Investigating test failures and tracing defects to their underlying causes.
• Using simulation, synthesis and hardware-debugging tools.
• Automating engineering tasks using scripting languages such as Python or Tcl.
• Taking part in design and code reviews.
• Communicating technical progress, decisions and results clearly to colleagues.
• Learning and applying the quality and safety standards required across different engineering markets.

The scope and complexity of your responsibilities will grow with your experience.

Who we’re looking for

You could be a graduate with strong digital-engineering foundations or an engineer who already has some FPGA design experience. You don’t necessarily need in-depth knowledge of SystemVerilog or UVM. What we’re looking for is the underlying aptitude to become good at verification.

You’ll need to be someone who enjoys getting beneath the surface of difficult technical problems. You naturally think about how a design could fail, enjoy tracing problems back to their root cause and take a structured approach to proving that something works.

Essential skills and experience

• A degree in Electronic Engineering or a closely related subject.
• A sound understanding of digital logic, computer architecture and FPGA principles.
• Experience writing HDL code using VHDL, Verilog or SystemVerilog through university work, personal projects or employment.
• Some experience of simulating, testing or debugging digital designs.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• A careful and structured approach to engineering work.
• The curiosity and persistence to investigate why something behaves differently from the way it should.
• The ability to explain your thinking and work effectively with other engineers.
• Evidence that you have independently developed your technical knowledge or taken a project beyond its basic requirements.
• Full, unrestricted right to work in the UK (we are not looking to sponsor visas for this role now or in the future).

Desirable skills and experience

• Experience using FPGA tools such as AMD Vivado or Altera Quartus Prime.
• Familiarity with testbenches or verification concepts.
• Experience using simulation tools such as QuestaSim.
• Exposure to Python, Tcl or another scripting language.
• Familiarity with Git, Subversion or another revision-control system.
• University, personal or commercial projects involving FPGA development, embedded systems, digital signal processing, communications or networking.
• Practical experience using equipment such as oscilloscopes or logic analysers.
• Previous SystemVerilog or UVM experience would be useful, but it isn’t required. Your underlying engineering ability, approach to problem-solving and capacity to learn matter more.
• We also actively encourage applications from people returning to engineering after a career break.

About ITDev

ITDev provides fully managed technology design services from our offices on Southampton Science Park. Since 2000, we’ve developed embedded software, electronics, FPGA technology and complete systems for customers in the UK and internationally. Our work ranges from specialist contributions to large engineering programmes through to the independent development of complete products and systems. Our software and electronic designs are used by millions of people. Alongside our client work, we develop our own FPGA technology for video processing and media-over-IP applications.