Firmware Engineer

Position: Lead Firmware Engineer ref:1700

Location: Edinburgh, with hybrid working options, 3 days onsite.

Pay: Inside IR35 – PAYE Rate £80/hr

Hours: 37 hrs a week

Anticipated Duration: 12 months with possible extension

Start: ASAP

Security Clearance: 5 years UK residency and be capable of achieving full SC

Sector: Defence & Aerospace

Lead Firmware / FPGA Specialist to work within the Surveillance Sector, developing firmware and working on FPGAs that underpins both our current proven surveillance radar systems and our next generation breakthrough technologies.

We deliver high-performance surveillance radar solutions such as Osprey and Seaspray , operating in demanding, mission-critical environments across air, land, and maritime domains. As new programmes begin from the ground up, we are offering a rare opportunity to help architect and develop the next generation of surveillance radar technology, working closely with hardware and software where performance, reliability, and innovation truly matter.

This is a unique opportunity, involving requirement capture, architecture definition, design maturation, integration and qualification support of next generation surveillance radars.

What you’ll bring

As a Lead Firmware / FPGA Specialist, you will work with the support of experts in their field, using world-class facilities to deliver firmware for complex digital systems that meet challenging future customer requirements. You will use your technical experience in all aspects of firmware development to support the delivery of key products. Your expertise will be key to enhance processes and ways of working across UK wide FPGA/Firmware delivery teams. You will also mentor junior members of the team to help enhance their skills and knowledge in all aspects of Firmware development.

Location/hybrid working requirements:

This role will be based on-site in our Edinburgh office. If you are applying remotely, you MUST be willing to travel to site as the project dictates - this may be up to 5 days per week on-site depending on the project's stage of development. As a typical baseline, this is usually around 3 days per week as a minimum.

What you must have:

• Degree (BSc, BEng, MEng, MSc, PhD) in Electrical & Electronic Engineering or similar engineering/science course.
• Ability to analyse system level requirements and capture/ derive detailed FW requirements.
• Experience in firmware design techniques and tools, from VHDL to place-and-route.
• Experience in FPGA architectures such as system-on-chip (e.g. Xilinx Versal).
• Experience in specifying timing and area constraints for efficient FPGA place and route.
• Experience in integrating and debugging complex systems where the Firmware interacts with Hardware and Software.
• Experience of working in mixed discipline teams.
• Due to the nature of our work, any candidate must have 5 years UK residency and be capable of achieving full SC security clearance.

It would be desirable if you had:

• Experience of auto-generated code using model driven engineering using MATLAB and Simulink tools.
• Experience of design tools such as Verilog, System Verilog and UVM.
• Experience in Siemens tools HDLDesigner and QuestaSim.
• Experience in using DOORs and ReqTracer.
• Experience within the defence industry.

Security Clearance

This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). An additional range of Personnel Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV) may apply, this could include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV).