Senior Digital Firmware Design Engineer

The Defense Systems Group at Leidos has an immediate opening for a Senior Digital Firmware Design Engineer at our St. Petersburg, FL facility.

This position supports the development of advanced, mission-critical military communications systems and involves the design, integration, testing, and optimization of secure, ruggedized electronic hardware for defense applications.

The ideal candidate will possess deep expertise in FPGA-based digital design and hands-on experience integrating hardware and firmware within complex embedded systems.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Participate in a multi-disciplinary engineering team developing secure, high-performance military communications hardware and firmware.
• Analyze and decompose system-level requirements into detailed hardware design specifications with full traceability.
• Perform Logic Design; write VHDL code, perform synthesis, logic simulation, test bench generation, functional testing and hardware debugging of designs within FPGA/CPLD devices.
• Architect, implement and test embedded firmware /software within FPGA-based digital designs including signal processing, control logic, and high-speed interfaces on a variety of platforms (FPGAs, microcontrollers, microprocessors, and mixed signal designs).
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex hardware, firmware / software and integration issues across prototype and production phases.
• Support design reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR), technical documentation, and configuration management processes.
• Provide technical input for cost estimates, schedules, and risk assessments.
• Collaborate closely with Firmware, Software, RF, systems, and test engineering teams throughout the development lifecycle.

Clearance Requirements:

• U.S. Citizen required.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Secret Security Clearance.
• Active Secret clearance preferred.
• Ability to obtain Top Secret clearance preferred.

Required Qualifications:

• BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field.
• 6+ years of experience in embedded hardware and digital design (8+ preferred for Senior level).
• Experience supporting full product development lifecycle including:
• Requirements analysis, System design and hardware implementation, Integration and test
• Firmware/software architecture development for embedded systems, including FPGAs and SoCs
• Technical documentation and formal design reviews
• Strong VHDL, FPGA/SoC design and implementation experience:
• Digital logic design using VHDL with System-On-Chip devices (SOC’s), FPGA’s, CPLD/s, and/or Microcontrollers.
• Modern vendor design tools (IDE’s) such as Xilinx Vivado, Vitis, Altera, Libero SoC, Lattice Diamond
• Simulation and Testbench generation (Xilinx simulator, Aldec Active HDL, Riveria Pro, Modelsim, or similar)
• RISC microprocessors architectures (ARM Cortex, Microblaze, PowerPC, RISC-V)
• C/C++ language software development for embedded, real-time systems.
• Experience with one or more of the following:
• Integrating and troubleshooting digital subsystems within embedded systems.
• Digital interfaces such as I2C, SPI, RS-232/422, USB, Ethernet
• ADC/DAC devices and understanding performance characteristics.
• Hands-on lab experience debugging hardware using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and related tools
• Understand trade-offs of embedded system targets (FPGA, SoC, microcontroller, RTOS, bare-metal) for developing best cost/option architectures.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Active Secret or Top Secret clearance.
• Experience with one or more of the following:
• FPGA/SOC/u-Processor manufacturers including Xilinx, Microsemi, ST-Micro, Lattice, etc.
• High-speed interfaces/protocols such as PCIe, JESD204B, LVDS, and SERDES.
• Simulation and modeling tools (MATLAB, Python, LabVIEW).
• Embedded operating systems (Linux, VxWorks, FreeRTOS).
• Implementing signal processing concepts such as digital filters, digital modulation, up/down conversion within HDL designs.
• IP cores and modern processor interfaces (Xilinx IP Cores, AXI4, AXI-Stream).
• Design, integration and testing electronic circuits within embedded systems, including digital, analog and radio frequency (RF) subsystems.
• Experience developing ruggedized or military communication systems.
• Experience transitioning prototype designs into production hardware TRL5/6 through TRL 8/9).
• Familiar with schematic capture and PCB design tools (Altium, Cadence Allegro/OrCAD, KiCAD or equivalent).

Pay Range: $87,100.00 - $157,450.00