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Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company building rockets, spacecraft, and critical subsystems. The Space Systems division has enabled over 1,700 missions for NASA, the Space Development Agency, and the U.S. Space Force, including payloads to the Moon and Mars.
Rocket Lab Optical Systems specializes in mission-critical space domain and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance solutions for Department of Defense and Intelligence Community customers. The team delivers innovative electro-optical and infrared systems for responsive, scalable sensing across all orbital domains.
As a Senior FPGA Engineer II, you will design and develop FPGAs for advanced electro-optical space payloads supporting the U.S. Space Development Agency's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (Tranche 3). You will work closely with hardware design teams to translate requirements into high-performance FPGA implementations.
Key responsibilities include: completing full FPGA logic design cycles from coding through simulation and testing; supporting hardware and software teams during product bring-up and integration; providing subject-matter expertise on design and automated test procedures to customers and production teams; researching and analyzing customer specifications and technical documentation to determine feasibility; executing lab debugging and validation; and performing synthesis, implementation, and timing analysis.
Required qualifications: Bachelor's degree in computer engineering, electrical engineering, or equivalent; 8+ years of professional FPGA firmware development in VHDL; ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance.
Desirable experience includes: Xilinx/AMD Versal architecture; FPGAs in radiation environments with SEU/SEL mitigation; FPGA-based image processing algorithms; creating and integrating IP in RTL and block designs; C, Python, or MATLAB with algorithm-to-HDL translation; software interfaces (interrupts, DMA); DDR4, Aurora, and high-speed transceiver design; AXI Stream and AXI Memory Mapped interfaces; PCB design with Altium Designer.
The role requires close and distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and focus. Regular computer work, occasional lab exposure to noise and fumes. Must be able to commute to Chantilly, VA office.
