Hardware and Firmware Engineer (FPGA/PCB) for Product Design Team in Rocklin, CA

$100,000 - $150,000/Yr

OSI Engineering - San Francisco, CA

Full-time - Mid Level

San Francisco, CA

Administrative and Support Services

About the position

As a Hardware and Firmware Engineer (FPGA/PCB) for the Product Design Team in Rocklin, CA, you will be an integral part of a small design team where your contributions will significantly impact a variety of products across multiple industries, including medical, networking, and aerospace. This role involves working on diverse design ideas and products, allowing you to leverage your engineering skills in a dynamic environment. You will report directly to the CEO, providing you with a unique opportunity to influence cutting-edge products and services from the ground up. In this position, you will be responsible for providing critical information during the concept stage of product development, including project complexity, feasibility, and cost estimation. You will collaborate closely with end customers to gather user requirements and translate these into lower-level engineering specifications. Your analytical skills will be essential as you benchmark and compare the performance of various products, utilizing both specifications and empirical test data. You will also be tasked with developing and analyzing multiple solutions to user problems, potentially prototyping options to demonstrate proof of concept. Your expertise in designing and debugging analog and digital electronic circuits, as well as microprocessor or FPGA firmware, will be crucial. Collaboration with mechanical and software engineers will ensure that all design modules integrate seamlessly. You will participate in design reviews, perform Design for Manufacturability assessments, and ensure that designs meet user requirements through thorough reviews with end customers. Additionally, you will create and execute test protocols, troubleshoot issues during verification and validation, and document all designs with appropriate drawings. Regular status updates to supervisors and project teams will be part of your responsibilities, along with visiting customer sites for troubleshooting and discussions about products and projects.

Responsibilities

• Provides information for the estimation of project complexity, feasibility and cost at the concept stage of product development.
• Works with end customers to develop user requirements for products.
• Develops lower-level engineering specifications from user requirements.
• Gathers and analyzes data to benchmark and compare the performance of multiple products using specifications or empirical test data.
• Develops and analyzes multiple solutions to user problems potentially prototyping one or more options to provide proof of concept.
• Design prototype and debug analog and digital electronics circuits and microprocessor or FPGA firmware.
• Work with mechanical and software engineers to ensure that all design modules will integrate properly.
• Participates in and hosts design reviews to improve the quality of a design.
• Performs Design for Manufacturability review on designs.
• Reviews designs with end customers to ensure that they meet user requirements.
• Creates and executes test protocols.
• Debugs problems as they arise during verification and validation.
• Documents all designs with the appropriate drawings.
• Presents periodic status updates to supervisor, project teams and/or senior staff on tasks.
• Visits customer sites to perform troubleshooting on existing designs.
• Visits customer sites to discuss products/projects, and observe products in use.

Requirements

• Previous experience in drawing schematic
• Previous experience in writing firmware and architecting a design
• Previous experience with medical devices is a plus
• Previous experience with motor controls is a plus
• Design schematics with FPGAs with analog circuits
• Write FPGA code that does digital signal processing
• Writing code with DSP algorithms
• Having video image manipulation experience is a plus
• Generate a schematic and work with PCB layout
• Writing microcontroller firmware is a plus
• Demonstrated ability to operate small hand tools (e.g. pliers, screwdrivers, hammer, wrenches, etc.), power tools and test/inspection equipment.
• Design both digital and analog circuits.
• Ability to work with software packages such as: Altium, cadence, ORCAD PADs, Vivado, Quartus, Eclipse IDE, or similar tools.
• Benchmark electronic designs and implementations
• Ability to work on projects with general direction and minimal guidance.
• Working knowledge and understanding of the basic principles, theories, concepts, and practices in the applicable area of engineering/technical specialization.
• Proven ability to write clear technical documentation.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in Hardware Design
• Design high speed digital PCBs utilizing FPGAs and microcontroller
• Experience with low voltage power supply design is a plus
• Experience with low noise analog systems is a plus
• Hardware resting is a plus
• FPGA Firmware Design
• Program in Verilog (preferred) or VHDL
• Experience with high speed DDR memory controllers
• Experience with high speed serial transceivers
• Understand how to achieve timing closure in a design including handling clock domain crossings
• Experience with communications systems like Ethernet, PCIe, or other similar interfaces is a plus
• Experience with control systems for electric motors and other applications is a plus
• Experience with video processing and interfaces like HDMI, SDI, MIPI, or other similar interfaces is a plus
• Experience with camera image sensor ISP development is a plus
• Experience with manipulating data with DSP algorithms is a plus
• Embedded (MCU) firmware design
• Program bare metal applications using C or C++
• Program applications to interface with embedded devices over SPI, I2C, UART, or similar interfaces
• Experience with programming RTOS applications is a plus
• Experience with motor control systems is a plus
• Experience with programming for USB, Ethernet, Bluetooth, or similar interfaces is a plus.

Benefits

• Relocation assistance available
• Onsite work 1-2 days per week