Principal FPGA Engineer (AU) – DroneShield
Adelaide, South Australia
About the Company
DroneShield (ASX:DRO) is a leading defense technology company focused on counter‑drone solutions. The company designs and builds the full signal chain for high‑end RF sensors and effectors, serving militaries, government agencies, airports, critical infrastructure, and law enforcement worldwide. DroneShield has a growing workforce of over 390 staff and is expanding to 500 across Australia by the end of 2026.
About the Role
We are seeking a Principal FPGA Engineer to join our team in Adelaide. The position reports to the Embedded Hardware Manager within the Sensors and Effectors Team and will focus on the architecture and detailed design of next‑generation products. This role requires deep expertise in RF concepts, FPGA and ARM processor development, digital signal processing, and related hardware technology.
Responsibilities
* Research, scope, design, develop, and implement embedded software systems to support real‑time wide‑frequency spectrum RF digital data signal processing.
* Identify proprietary and open‑standard transmission protocols and recover data.
* Optimize DroneShield's core technology for recognition, accuracy, performance, stability, and maintenance.
* Collaborate with cross‑functional teams to maintain class‑leading product architecture.
Qualifications and Skills
* BS/BE degree in Electronic Engineering or equivalent practical experience.
* 10+ years of qualified experience within an established team.
* Strong experience programming, debugging, and verifying Verilog, VHDL, or SystemVerilog.
* Experience designing automated verification and validation frameworks.
* Proficient with synthesis and complex timing closure on resource‑constrained FPGAs.
* Background in high‑speed digital design and building customized IP cores.
* Experience with FPGA tools such as Vivado (preferred), Quartus, Vitis.
* Ability to design and implement high‑throughput, low‑latency, fully pipelined FPGA architectures.
* Knowledge of C/C++ firmware development for FPGA modules and scripting languages (Python preferred).
* Comfortable working in a Linux environment.
* Experience with PCB schematics, board bring‑ups, and hardware debugging is highly desirable.
* Strong background in digital signal processing is highly desirable.
* General RF background and knowledge of RF transmission protocols and principles are desirable.
* Understanding or working knowledge of machine‑learning concepts within FPGA implementation is ideal.
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