Sr. FPGA Engineer (Starshield)

Starshield leverages SpaceX’s launch capability and Starlink technology to support national security efforts. While Starlink is designed for consumer and commercial use, Starshield is designed for government use, with an initial focus on earth observation, communications, and hosted payloads.

The satellite engineering team is hiring for satellite programs that are pushing the boundaries of in-space capabilities. Our missions support scientific research, classified national security space and commercial opportunities. Software engineering and innovation is at the core of these programs.

The satellite software team is building highly reliable in-space networks, designing secure systems to guarantee access to space, and creating autonomous satellite operation systems, and more. Aerospace experience is not required to be successful here - we want our engineers to bring fresh ideas from all areas, love solving problems, and seek to make an impact on an inspiring mission. As we expand this team, we're looking for versatile, driven, and collaborative engineers.  

As a Sr. FPGA Engineer on the satellite digital design team, you will be designing, developing, and testing FPGAs that supports safety critical logic, sensors, cryptography, and RF/optical communications systems for SpaceX’s satellite constellation. You will engage with other SpaceX engineers to discover the needs of the missions and code highly reliable digital designs which turn the mission into reality. You will be responsible for the complete lifecycle of the FPGA designs you create, including development, testing, and support. 

• →Own the conceptual, architectural, and design components of digital, signal processing, and communication systems supporting various SpaceX satellite spacecraft  
• →Implement logic designs and signals processing algorithms in RTL  
• →Integrate designs onto FPGA/SoC platforms  
• →Bring up and validate devices that communicate to and fly in space
• →Work in close collaboration with RF/antenna, software, and other DSP engineers to design and validate software-defined radio systems  

• →To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.  

SpaceX is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with SpaceX is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

Applicants wishing to view a copy of SpaceX’s Affirmative Action Plan for veterans and individuals with disabilities, or applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application/interview process should reach out to [email protected].