Principal FPGA & Firmware Engineer

About Nova Solvers

Nova Solvers is an advanced engineering company developing spacecraft, avionics, sensing systems, autonomous technologies, and mission-critical solutions for commercial, civil, defense, and national security customers. Our team specializes in transforming complex challenges into innovative, high-performance systems that operate in the most demanding environments. We are passionate about building technologies that enable the next generation of space missions and defense capabilities.

The Role

Nova Solvers is seeking a Principal FPGA & Firmware Engineer to lead the architecture, design, implementation, and verification of FPGA-based processing systems and embedded firmware for spacecraft avionics, payload control, and mission-critical digital electronics. This is a principal-level, hands-on technical leadership position for an engineer who has personally developed complex FPGA and embedded systems and can guide digital architectures from concept through qualification and flight.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead FPGA and embedded firmware development for spacecraft avionics and payload control systems.
• Define digital architecture, subsystem requirements, interfaces, and implementation strategies.
• Develop FPGA designs using Verilog/SystemVerilog for real-time spacecraft control, data processing, and payload applications.
• Develop embedded firmware in C/C++ for processors, microcontrollers, and FPGA-based systems.
• Perform timing closure, resource optimization, and power analysis for FPGA designs.
• Integrate FPGA logic with high-speed interfaces including LVDS, SERDES, Ethernet, SPI, I2C, UART, and RS-422.
• Develop and maintain simulation environments, test benches, and verification frameworks.
• Collaborate with hardware engineers on board-level design, signal integrity, and hardware/software integration.
• Apply design-for-testability and design-for-reliability principles to flight hardware development.
• Conduct bench-level bring-up, debugging, and validation using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, JTAG tools, and laboratory instrumentation.
• Support environmental testing including vibration, thermal vacuum, EMI/EMC, and qualification campaigns.
• Lead technical reviews, risk assessments, design evaluations, and subcontractor oversight activities.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to company-wide FPGA and firmware development standards.
• Generate and maintain HDL repositories, firmware baselines, verification documentation, test reports, and configuration-controlled deliverables.

What We Look For

We are looking for engineers who thrive on solving difficult technical challenges and are comfortable taking ownership of critical systems. Successful candidates possess strong technical leadership skills, a hands-on engineering mindset, and a proven ability to deliver reliable digital systems for demanding aerospace and defense applications.

Minimum Qualifications

• B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.
• 10+ years of experience designing, implementing, and verifying FPGA and embedded systems for spacecraft, aerospace, defense, or other high-reliability applications.
• Deep proficiency with Verilog and/or SystemVerilog.
• Experience with FPGA development environments such as AMD Vivado, Microchip Libero, or equivalent toolchains.
• Strong understanding of digital communications, embedded systems, and real-time processing architectures.
• Hands-on experience with laboratory validation and troubleshooting of digital hardware.
• Experience collaborating with multidisciplinary engineering teams throughout development and integration activities.
• Excellent communication, documentation, and technical leadership skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with radiation-tolerant and radiation-hardened FPGA devices.
• Familiarity with radiation mitigation techniques including Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR), configuration scrubbing, fault detection, and recovery architectures.
• Experience with AMD Versal™, Xilinx®, RTG4™, PolarFire®, or similar FPGA platforms.
• Experience supporting spacecraft environmental testing and qualification programs.
• Familiarity with MIL-STD, NASA, ECSS, IPC, and aerospace design standards.
• Proficiency with Python or similar scripting languages for automation, testing, and data analysis.
• Experience developing automated verification infrastructure and ground test systems.
• Experience with spacecraft avionics, payload processing, command and data handling, or autonomous systems.
• Prior involvement in NASA, DoD, intelligence community, or commercial spacecraft programs from design through launch.
• Active U.S. Security Clearance.