What are the responsibilities and job description for the Principal FPGA Engineer position at Thales Defense & Security, Inc.?
Req Id: 428
Location:
CLARKSBURG, MD, US, 20871
Date: Jul 6, 2026
Thales Defense & Security, Inc. (TDSI) Headquartered in Clarksburg, MD, is a U.S. company that has been serving domestic and international defense Air, Land and Sea domains for 60 years. With over 1,000 employees, TDSI and its four subsidiaries (Advanced Acoustic Concepts, Digital Receiver Technology, Tampa Microwave, and Trusted Cyber Technologies), supports U.S. Joint Services, special operations forces and multi-national partners with a variety of communication, visualization, signal intelligence/electronic warfare, and sensor/sonar capabilities. TDSI’s key technologies include tactical handheld radios, expeditionary satellite terminals, helmet-mounted displays, optics and target recognition capability, advanced radars, undersea sensing and missile systems. Lives depend on what we do!
Top Benefits (Subject to terms of applicable policies/plans)
The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
For specific questions about this job posting, candidates may contact talent acquisition at careers@thalesdsi.com.
Thales Defense & Security, Inc. is committed to non-discrimination as applicable under federal, state and local laws. We are an E-Verify Employer.
If you need an accommodation or assistance in order to apply for a position with Thales Defense & Security, Inc., please call Human Resources at 240-864-2000.
Nearest Major Market: Washington DC
Location:
CLARKSBURG, MD, US, 20871
Date: Jul 6, 2026
Thales Defense & Security, Inc. (TDSI) Headquartered in Clarksburg, MD, is a U.S. company that has been serving domestic and international defense Air, Land and Sea domains for 60 years. With over 1,000 employees, TDSI and its four subsidiaries (Advanced Acoustic Concepts, Digital Receiver Technology, Tampa Microwave, and Trusted Cyber Technologies), supports U.S. Joint Services, special operations forces and multi-national partners with a variety of communication, visualization, signal intelligence/electronic warfare, and sensor/sonar capabilities. TDSI’s key technologies include tactical handheld radios, expeditionary satellite terminals, helmet-mounted displays, optics and target recognition capability, advanced radars, undersea sensing and missile systems. Lives depend on what we do!
Top Benefits (Subject to terms of applicable policies/plans)
- Competitive Salary
- Yearly Incentive Compensation Plan
- Medical insurance for self and eligible family members
- Generous 401(k) program- up to 7% company contribution and 100% immediate vesting
- Tuition Reimbursement
- Paid wellness, vacation, and holiday leave
- Paid maternity, paternity, and parental leave
- 9/80 Work Schedule (every other Friday off)
- Hybrid working environment
- Participate and lead FPGA architecture design.
- Own projects with regards to FPGA code and test bench development.
- Mentor junior engineers.
- System integration and test on target platforms.
- System functions and performance evaluation in LAB.
- Participate in TDSI Agile/SCRUM software development process.
- Maintain a high ethical standard of practice, including compliance with all company procedures.
- Develop signal processing, communication protocol software for an advanced communication system.
The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
- U.S. Citizenship required. - Applicants selected may be subject to a government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information.
- U.S. Citizenship Required. - Ability to obtain and maintain US Secret Level Security Clearance upon hire.
- BS in EE or CompE with at least 8 years relevant experience or MS in EE with minimum 6 years of FPGA-related experience.
- Extensive experience in FPGA design and programming using Verilog and/or VHDL.
- Hands-on-experience with industry-standard FPGA development tools such as ModelSim, Synplify Pro, Altera/XILINX/Lattice design suites.
- Strong understanding of digital design fundamentals including meta-stability, clock-domain crossing techniques, and essential timing analysis for achieving reliable timing closure in multi-clock FPGA designs.
- Experience with hardware integration and system bring-up, including FPGA-to-board interface validation, high-speed I/O bring-up, ad debugging using lab instrumentation (logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, ect.)
- Expereince implementing digital signal processing algorithms and communication architectures in FPGA-based systems.
- Familiarity with digital communicaitons concepts such as modulation/demodulation, filtering, synchronization, andchannel coding.
- Good communication skills and self-motivation.
- Ability to comply with all Company guidelines, policies, procedures and embrace Company Core Values.
For specific questions about this job posting, candidates may contact talent acquisition at careers@thalesdsi.com.
Thales Defense & Security, Inc. is committed to non-discrimination as applicable under federal, state and local laws. We are an E-Verify Employer.
If you need an accommodation or assistance in order to apply for a position with Thales Defense & Security, Inc., please call Human Resources at 240-864-2000.
Nearest Major Market: Washington DC
Salary : $164,452 - $210,133