Senior FPGA Security Architect– Aerospace, Defense & Government

Key Responsibilities

• Customer Security Advisor (ADG Focus)
• Act as a trusted FPGA security advisor to aerospace and defense customers
• Lead customer discussions on FPGA security architecture, threat modeling, and risk tradeoffs
• Translate customer use cases, mission requirements, regulatory requirements, and threat models into clear FPGA security recommendations
• Support engagements involving sensitive or controlled program constraints
• Engage with senior technical and business stakeholders, including architects, security teams, and executives
• FPGA Security Architecture
• Advises on secure FPGA design and deployment, including:
• Bitstream encryption, authentication, and IP protection
• Key management, secure provisioning, and device identity
• Protection against cloning, reverse engineering, and IP theft
• Secure boot and chain-of-trust for FPGA-based systems
• Side-channel and fault-injection awareness and mitigations
• Device identity, secure provisioning, and lifecycle control
• Secure sustainment, re-keying, and field updates over extended lifetimes
• Pre-Sales & Program Support
• Partner with Sales and FAEs and Product teams to support complex ADG customer engagements and design wins
• Deliver security-focused presentations, architecture reviews, and technical workshops
• Represent Altera in customer briefings, industry forums, and security-focused events
• Support RFIs, RFPs, and customer security assessments
• Contribute to program-level security planning and technical alignment
• Clearly articulate security value, differentiation, and risk reduction in customer-facing engagements
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Provide customer-driven feedback into Altera’s FPGA product security roadmaps
• Share ADG market insights, regulatory requirements, emerging threats, industry best practices, and program requirements with internal teams
• Collaborate with internal security, engineering, and product stakeholders

Qualifications

• Required Qualifications
• Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field (Master’s preferred)
• 10+ years of experience in FPGA design, SoC architecture, or hardware security
• Strong understanding of FPGA architectures, configuration flows, and development tools
• Experience with FPGA security features such as bitstream encryption, secure boot, key management, and device authentication
• Able to communicate complex security topics clearly to technical and program stakeholders
• Experience supporting aerospace, defense, or government programs
• Experience working directly with customers in a technical or advisory capacity
• Preferred Qualifications
• Experience with SoC FPGAs and embedded processors (e.g., ARM-based FPGA platforms)
• Familiarity with anti-tamper, IP protection, physically unclonable functions (PUFs) and long-term sustainment requirements
• Knowledge of cryptographic implementations and key management in constrained hardware environments
• Knowledge of hardware security standards or frameworks relevant to ADG programs
• Exposure to supply chain security, trusted manufacturing, and device provenance

Pay Range

The pay range below is for Bay Area California only. Actual salary may vary based on a number of factors including job location, job-related knowledge, skills, experiences, trainings, etc. We also offer incentive opportunities that reward employees based on individual and company performance.

$200.4K - $290.1K USD