Senior Firmware Engineer

- 1/2 days p/month on site and the rest from home.

- Inside IR35

- Must be SC clearable or have active SC

Buckinghamshire

Our client is looking for a Senior Firmware Design Engineer for a major Electronic Warfare (EW) programme, to lead design, development and test of new and existing FPGA firmware products for EW training pods. The Senior Firmware Design Engineer is responsible for producing customer deliverable firmware in a structured, process driven environment. This includes, but is not limited to, development of FPGA firmware design architecture, models, configuration of FPGA SoC components, firmware tests and documentation. The engineer will also be involved in the review and verification, place and route and meet timing processes. The engineer shall employ the appropriate processes, practices and tools to ensure that responsibilities are delivered to project timescales and necessary quality.

Key Responsibilities -

Application of discipline domain knowledge to the design, development and test of high speed firmware components on time, within budget and with required quality

Peer review of firmware

Produce documentation required to support the firmware

Assist in estimating, planning and progress reporting

Provide support to the project and systems teams

Collaboration with other project team members to analyse and address project requirements

Support the implementation of design review practice including: System Design Review, Preliminary Design Review, Critical Design Review, Test Readiness Review and Final Acceptance Review.

Application of and compliance with, engineering processes and practices, including engineering framework, life cycle management and regulatory requirements.

Identification of opportunities for the improvement of processes, practices and tools.

Outline of Competencies -

Familiarity with the product lifecycle from system requirements, architecture, algorithm development, modelling, design, integration, qualification, verification, through to production and support

Familiarity with engineering processes, practices and measures of performance for the discipline

Aptitude for complex problem solving and creativity

Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Self-motivated, confident, with initiative and drive

Good team player with the ability to work in self-organised teams within a large organization in a matrix management structure

Ability to obtain a SC Security Clearance

Proven ability to work and deliver to deadlines

Qualifications and Experience required -

• Highly experienced (10+ years) in developing production FPGA firmware, ideally for one or more of the following: Software Defined Radio, EW, communications or surveillance systems for an airborne environment
• Expertise in design, coding, debugging, reviewing and testing complex digital high speed systems
• Proficient in digital implementation in VHDL language
• Familiar with Xilinx (AMD) Vivado and Microsemi Libero design tools, Block Diagram Design entry as well as VHDL, & IP integrator.
• Proficient in designing digital processing components and algorithms in Matlab/Simulink design for HDL coder and targeting FPGA devices
• Must be proficient in scripting language Tcl to support FPGA Vivado/Libero design and Modelsim simulation.
• Experience of processor system block design, schematic design, IP integrator, and VHDL firmware development
• Experience of developing firmware I&Q signal processing, digital filter design and frame based sample streaming.
• Experience of implementing efficient resource and time critical firmware on latest technology ultra large FPGA and SoC FPGA devices with multi ARM processors.
• Experience designing FPGAs custom programmable logic interfacing/ integrating SoCs ARM multi-Processing system with DDR, Ethernet, DMA, FIFO, RS232/422 UARTs, I2C, SPI, IPMI, AXI, AXIStream, AXI4Lite, AHB, APB busses etc.
• Ability to apply timing driven optimisation to achieve closure for place and route process
• Ability to write optimised efficient code.
• Experience of development environments including Vivado block design, IP Integrator, VHDL source code, Libero development IDE for smartfusion2.
• Experience in writing VHDL testbenches to verify the firmware using Modelsim.
• Proficient and confident with version control systems e.g. GIT, and with an understanding of Configuration Management
• Educational qualifications: Minimum Technical Degree in Computer Science, Electronics or Software Engineering or equivalent
• Desirable that the candidate is familiar with communication systems and various modulation schemes for VHF/UHF, EW systems, aerospace and defence industries, products and technologies
• Experience of the design of digital firmware for FPGA in EW Systems is desirable

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