Principal Firmware Engineer

ATLAS ELEKTRONIK UK develop, supply and support cutting-edge maritime technology for customers worldwide. Based in Winfrith, Dorset, they work closely with the UK Royal Navy to create products which protect lives at sea.

Due to the growth of our business we are seeking an experienced FPGA Design Engineer to join our
Electronics team. The successful candidate will be supporting the delivery of bespoke electronics for integration into complex systems, with a significant focus on high bandwidth telemetry systems. This includes the implementation of various high-speed serial communication protocols, Gigabit Ethernet, large data collation, conversion and digital signal processing techniques.

Primary Responsibilities
 

• Translate sub-system requirements through to firmware specifications.
• Investigate preliminary architectures and estimates from initial concepts and specifications.
• Formalise detailed designs using programmable logic specifications.
• Carry out detailed implementation of RTL, constrained place and route through timing closure.
• Derive verification strategies and schedules to address firmware requirements.
• Develop test cases and procedures to verify that a design meets its specifications.
• Design and utilise both unit level and BFM style verification test-benches to exercise RTL.
• Produce documentation to fully support the design.

Person specification (knowledge, skills and experience)

This is an excellent opportunity for a dynamic FPGA Design Engineer who wants to improve and challenge their technical capabilities to develop cutting edge technologies for a world-leading organisation.

Candidate competencies
 

• Lead internal firmware design reviews throughout development lifecycle.
• Support system architecture discussion where firmware is a key component of the system.
• Experience of digital design techniques and targeting programmable logic devices.
• Experience of a Hardware Description Language, preferably VHDL.
• Experience of IP block design through to complete programmable logic device delivery.
• Experience in the use of HDL simulation tools e.g. ModelSim, Active-HDL, etc.
• Experience in programmable logic verification techniques and self-checking test-benches.
• Experience in the use of silicon vendor tools such as Vivado, QuartusPrime, Libero SoC, etc.
• Experience in programmable logic device constraints for physical and temporal definitions.

• Experience of any of the following would be advantageous
• Providing technical leadership, working collaboratively alongside engineering disciplines.
• Programmable logic verification methodologies such as OSVVM, UVM, etc.
• Automation techniques, e.g. scripting languages to drive development tools such as Tcl, Python, etc.
• Managing designs utilisingmultiple clock domains with appropriate clock domain crossing techniques.
• Static code analysis techniques such as Linter tools.
• Digital signal processing in programmable logic devices.
• Producing high quality behavioural and functional models.
• Matlab and Simulink.
• Programmable logic system-on-chip devices such as the Xilinx Zynq.

More information

The successful candidate must be able to achieve full SC (Security Clearance).