FPGA Engineer

FPGA Engineer

The Vydar Group | AI Microelectronic Navigation Systems in Defence

📍 Delft, Netherlands (On-site) | Full-time

About Vydar

On today's battlefield, navigation, tracking, and detection systems must be scalable, cost-efficient, and resilient. They need to operate reliably in contested airspace while accurately detecting and intercepting incoming threats.

At Vydar, we develop microelectronic hardware and software for AI-driven navigation in defence applications, including missile systems, aircraft, drones, and distributed sensing networks. We build our technology entirely from the ground up: proprietary hardware, software, and control systems, all designed, integrated, optimized, and validated in-house. This gives us full control over performance, security, and supply chain, with no reliance on restricted or foreign components.

We are looking for like-minded individuals who want to help build something Europe does not yet have: strategically independent, scalable, high-performance navigation systems.

The Role

As an FPGA Engineer, you will play a key role in developing and scaling Vydar's next-generation defence technology. You will work closely with our founding team and technical partners to bring solutions from lab to field deployment.

You will develop mission-critical, low-latency hardware solutions for machine vision applications in defence systems, including missile platforms, UAVs, drones, and distributed sensing networks.

You will join a team of 20 to 25 highly skilled engineers with backgrounds in aerospace, microelectronics, embedded hardware and software, and machine vision.

What You'll Do

• Develop, integrate, and verify IP blocks on EU-manufactured FPGAs (NanoXplore and/or Cologne Chip GateMate)
• Implement MIPI CSI-2 receiver interfaces to read out multiple sensor modalities, including thermal and low-light cameras
• Drive processed video to a display via the appropriate output interface (e.g. MIPI DSI)
• Own system integration of the FPGA subsystem within a compact, low-power form factor
• Define and execute simulation, timing closure, and on-hardware validation
• Collaborate with optics, sensor, hardware, and embedded software teams on interfaces and requirements

What We're Looking For

*We value enthusiasm, motivation, and willingness to learn. Please apply even if you do not meet every requirement.*

Education & Experience

• 3 to 6 years of professional FPGA development experience
• Degree in Computer Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
• Strong proficiency in VHDL and/or Verilog/SystemVerilog
• Hands-on experience implementing MIPI CSI-2 interfaces
• Solid understanding of timing constraints and clock domain crossing
• Experience taking a design from RTL through to validated hardware
• Comfortable with vendor-specific and EU sovereign toolchains, including less mature open-source ecosystems
• Low-power and resource-constrained design mindset suited to wearables
• Ability to debug complex system-level issues independently

Skills & Eligibility

• Good communication in English (Dutch is a plus)
• NATO-friendly citizenship or valid EU work permit
• Knowledge of Camera sensors

Technologies & Tools

Cologne Chip GateMate · Open-source flows (Yosys, nextpnr) · SystemVerilog · MIPI CSI-2, I2C, SPI

**Nice to have:** Knowledge of camera sensors, hardware design, hardware-software integration, defence/robotics/AI startup or R&D experience

What We Offer

• Meaningful, high-impact technology with real-world relevance in European defence
• Flat, collaborative team culture with direct access to the founding team
• Freedom to innovate, experiment, and grow in a fast-moving environment
• A role in a fast-moving European technology company with a clear mission
• Stock-program opportunity

We are working on something that is urgently needed. The project demands ownership, responsibility, and hands-on engagement with complex systems under tight timelines. If you want to build what Europe does not have today, we want to hear from you.

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