Staff Electrical Engineer (FPGA Development)

Location: Onsite in Long Beach, California, United States; travel to other sites as needed

Base salary: $175,000–$265,000 per year, plus equity and benefits

Company

hirify.global develops autonomous spacecraft, advanced payloads, mission software, and space-based interceptors for space security and defense.

What you will do

• Define reusable FPGA architectures, common frameworks, digital interface standards, and reliability standards across spacecraft avionics and payload programs.
• Lead development of a real-time FPGA image-processing pipeline for spacecraft detection, identification, and tracking using payload camera and rendezvous-proximity-operation sensor inputs.
• Design high-speed Ethernet interfaces, including MAC/PHY integration, Layer 2 switching, and high-throughput data paths.
• Own FPGA verification methodology across concurrent projects and integrate verification with system-level testing.
• Optimize system-level avionics architecture through trade studies covering performance, cost, reliability, and schedule.
• Coordinate multiple FPGA development efforts, coach engineers, and establish scalable design patterns.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field; a master’s degree is preferred.
• 8+ years of professional FPGA design experience with staff- or principal-level contributions.
• Deep expertise in VHDL and/or Verilog, FPGA synthesis flows, and multi-clock domain design.
• Experience designing real-time image-processing pipelines in FPGA fabric.
• Experience with high-speed Ethernet interfaces, MAC/PHY integration, and Layer 2 Ethernet switch development.
• Ability to maintain or obtain a TS/SCI security clearance and meet U.S. space-technology export-control requirements.

Nice to have

• Experience with space-qualified or radiation-hardened FPGA families such as PolarFire, ProASIC3, or SmartFusion2.
• Experience implementing computer-vision algorithms in FPGA fabric, including object detection, centroiding, or correlation-based tracking.
• Familiarity with SpaceWire, PCIe, SPI, I2C, and UART.
• Experience with C, C++, or Python for firmware integration and test automation.
• Experience in a fast-paced startup or similarly dynamic environment.

Culture & Benefits

• Equity and health, dental, vision, HRA/HSA, PTO, and paid holidays.
• 401(k) and parental leave.
• Work focuses on autonomous spacecraft, payloads, mission software, and space-based defense systems.
• Physical demands may include bending, sitting, lifting, and driving; working conditions may vary by environment.