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FPGA Engineer

Herndon, VA, United States (USA), HawkEye 360 [1067]

Field(s) of expertise
Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Electronics Engineering
Job type
Contract
Education
Master
Deadline
Closed

About this job

HawkEye 360 is a Radio Frequency (RF) data analytics company. We operate the first of its kind commercial satellite constellation to identify, process, and geolocate a broad set of RF signals. We extract value from this unique data through proprietary algorithms, fusing it with other sources to create powerful analytical products that solve hard challenges for our global customers. Our products include maritime domain awareness and spectrum mapping and monitoring designed to serve a wide range of commercial, government and international customers.

The mission of the Processing Team at Hawkeye 360 (HE360) is to build cross-domain systems to perform RF-based data collection and geolocation. The Processing team includes experts across FPGA development, embedded software, software defined radio, and cloud development; plus, deep knowledge of signal-of-interest (SOI) digital signal processing, RF communications systems, RF measurement systems, and geolocation. HE360 is currently seeking an FPGA Engineer who can help the Processing team build state-of-the-art embedded software defined radio (SDR) systems and FPGA-accelerated RF processing algorithms.

HE360 currently has two years of on-orbit experience delivering RF-based geolocation data, and we now need additional FPGA capacity to exponentially improve the value of each payload generation! We work in small teams to rapidly prototype and productize new ideas based on hands-on, in-the-weeds engineering. You will be responsible for designing and implementing a variety of FPGA-based solutions including board support packages, FPGA RF processing architecture with embedded Linux integration, and DSP algorithm acceleration using FPGA logic.

Responsibilities

  • Provide experienced leadership for FPGA development and embedded software across the company.
  • Collaboratively design and build new embedded systems improving RF collection capabilities for deployed software defined radios.
  • Enhance HawkEye 360’s on-orbit processing capacity by converting software signal processing components into FPGA logic and RFNoC blocks.
  • Build and maintain board support packages for current and future payloads: Zynq 7000, Zynq Ultrascale+ MPSoC.
  • Create and maintain tooling and automated systems to perform reliable builds and tests of FPGA modules across a number of hardware targets.

Profile

You’ll Need to Have…

  • 3+ years professional experience
  • 3+ years’ experience in hardware description languages such as Verilog or VHDL.
  • 3+ years’ experience programming in C or C++
  • Experience developing board support packages for custom hardware, especially utilizing Vivado to target Xilinx Zynq 7000 and Ultrascale SoCs
  • Experience building tightly integrated FPGA & software architectures for SDR applications
  • Digital Signal Processing (DSP) experience implementing FPGA-based algorithms for any of the following applications: communications systems (modem, codec, encryption, etc); radar processing; measurement systems such as time-of-arrival or frequency-of-arrival (e.g. GPS or other PNT systems); wideband RF analysis using channelization, modulation recognition, etc
  • Knowledge of common high-speed FPGA interfaces, particularly LVDS & JESD
  • Experience building mission-critical applications

We’d Like to See…

  • MS degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or comparable
  • Experience interacting with common SDR components: AD9361, Analog Devices Radioverse, Xilinx RFSoC
  • Familiarity with Ettus USRP radio hardware, the RFNOC FPGA framework, and UHD software
  • Familiarity with embedded Linux development and support for system-on-chip platforms, especially using Yocto and Openembedded for Linux OS integration

Cultural Fit…

  • Ability to work in a small and fast-paced environment.
  • A good attitude and team-oriented spirit.
  • A curious outlook – willingness to learn new things and solutions to fit the problem.
  • A passion for completing a job well – Attention to detail.
  • Ability to work well with all levels of company disciplines (i.e. Legal, HR, etc.).
  • Sense of humor and ability to proactively problem solve.

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