Senior FPGA Engineer II at Rocket Lab

Department: 120 OS - Software Engineering

Location: Tucson, Arizona
Level: senior
Posted: Sep 5, 2026

Description

Rocket Lab Optical Systems is hiring a Senior Firmware Engineer II in Tucson, Arizona to design FPGA firmware for advanced electro-optical space payloads. The role involves requirements work, FPGA logic design, coding, simulation, testing, debugging, synthesis, implementation, and timing analysis, as well as support for product bring-up and customer or production technical support. Candidates need a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, electrical engineering, or an equivalent discipline, at least 8 years of experience writing FPGA firmware from scratch in VHDL, and the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance.

Required Skills

FPGA logic design
FPGA coding
FPGA simulation
FPGA testing
VHDL
Timing analysis
Embedded systems
Image processing

Additional Information

Minimum Education: Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, electrical engineering, or an equivalent discipline
Required Previous Experiences: 8+ years of experience writing FPGA firmware from scratch in VHDL
Preferred Qualifications: Experience with Xilinx/AMD Versal architecture
Experience with FPGAs and embedded systems in a radiation environment, including SEU/SEL impact and mitigation
Experience in FPGA- or ASIC-based image processing algorithms
Experience creating IP from scratch in RTL and integrating existing IP into RTL and block designs
Familiarity with C, Python, or MATLAB and translating algorithms from a scripted language to HDL
Experience with software interfaces including interrupts and DMA
Experience with DDR4, Aurora, and high-speed transceiver design and verification
Familiarity with AXI Stream and AXI Memory Mapped interfaces
PCB design, schematic capture, and layout using Altium Designer
Translation Company Name: Rocket Lab Corporation