Senior or Principal Firmware / FPGA Engineer

Job Description:

Salary: Senior: £45, 200 to £61,950 / Principal: £53,300 to £71,400

Leonardo UK operates a grade-based salary framework with broad bands. The salary range shown reflects the approved grade band for this role, or a narrower hiring range published within that band, and is benchmarked against the external market. Exceptions above the standard range are managed through governance controls to protect internal equity.

Your impact

We are looking for a Firmware/FPGA engineer to join Leonardo in Edinburgh or Newcastle, a world-class defence technology company. We develop cutting-edge radars for the Eurofighter Typhoon and SAAB Gripen fighter jets, as well as maritime and airborne surveillance systems. We are also investors in innovation, undertaking all our own research to fuel our future products. We are recruiting talented, motivated engineers to join our growing Electronics team and we have a position for a Senior or Principal level Engineer. We can support the right engineer to be based in our Newcastle office but visits to the Edinburgh site would be an expected part of the role.

This is an exciting opportunity for you as an engineer to bring your skill set and knowledge to a fast paced, dynamic and forward-thinking working environment. You will be involved with Firmware/ FPGA development across the Radar and Advanced Targeting line of business, working as part of a larger, multi-disciplinary team. The key duties of the role will be design and development of firmware designs, managing your development activities through the project and engineering life-cycles and delivering the required solution.

As a Firmware / FPGA Engineer you will be responsible for:

• Hardware requirements capture and firmware design.

• Work as part of a team to meet milestones for on-time delivery.

• FPGA design/development, analysis and integration.

• Production of material for design reviews.

• Development of test planning, integration and design verification.

• Ensure that all firmware designs follow the company firmware process.

What you’ll bring

You will, ideally have experience in the following areas:

• Degree (BSc, BEng, MEng, MSc, PhD, EngD) in Electrical & Electronic Engineering (preferable) or related science (e.g. Physics or Computer science).

• Ability to design RTL using VHDL is essential, knowledge of Verilog an advantage but not essential.

• Implementing high speed, multi-frequency clocking architectures

• Design with FPGA technologies from either AMD(Xilinx), Intel (Altera) or Microsemi (Actel).

• Use of Xilinx Vivado or Altera Quartus II / Quartus Prime is an advantage

• Experience of FPGA architectures such as SoC system-on-chip (e.g. Xilinx Versal) an advantage.

• Experience in the use of Vendor IP e.g. Ethernet, Gigabit-transceivers, DDR interfaces etc.

• Knowledge of Version management using Subversion, GIT or CVS

• Specifying timing and area constraints for efficient FPGA place and route.

• Familiarity with Mentor Graphics FPGA development tools including HDL Designer and ModelSim / Questa is an advantage but not vital.

• A methodical approach to the full firmware design lifecycle, working to a structured firmware process such as RTCA DO-254 or similar.

• De-bugging firmware designs, supporting verification and integration at hardware and system level alongside Software and Electronic Engineers. Verification techniques (test-benching) using VHDL.

• Use of Integrated Logic Analysers (ILAs) from the firmware design tools.

Whilst not vital, any of the following would be advantageous:

• Knowledge of hardware communication protocols (Ethernet, SPI, I2C, UART, etc.)

• Knowledge of C, C++, MATLAB, or LabVIEW

Personal attributes and values are just as important to us as technical ability, so we are looking for engineers with a willingness to learn, progress and develop through our devoted technical career path. If you are passionate in what you do and can deliver a pragmatic approach to problem solving, we would like to hear from you.

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). For more information and guidance please visit:

Why join us

At Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We offer a comprehensive, company-funded benefits package that supports your wellbeing, career development, and work–life balance. Whether you're looking to grow professionally, care for your health, or plan for the future, we’re here to help you thrive.

• Time to Recharge: Enjoy generous leave with the opportunity to accrue up to 12 additional flexi-days each year.

• Secure your Future: Benefit from our award-winning pension scheme with up to 15% employer contribution.

• Your Wellbeing Matters: Free access to mental health support, financial advice, and employee-led networks championing inclusion and diversity (Enable, Pride, Equalise, Armed Forces, Carers, Wellbeing and Ethnicity).

• Rewarding Performance : All employees at management level and below are eligible for our bonus scheme.

• Never Stop Learning : Free access to 4,000+ online courses via Coursera and LinkedIn Learning.

• Refer a friend: Receive a financial reward through our referral programme.

• Tailored Perks : Spend up to £500 annually on flexible benefits including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech & lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more.

• Flexible working: Flexible hours with hybrid working options. For part time opportunities, please talk to us about what might be possible for this role.

For a full list of our company benefits please visit our website.

Leonardo is a global leader in Aerospace, Defence, and Security. Headquartered in Italy, we employ over 53,000 people worldwide including 8,500 across 9 sites in the UK. Our employees are not just part of a team—they are key contributors to shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety.

At Leonardo we are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace. We believe that a diverse workforce sparks creativity, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes for our people and our customers. If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know.

Be part of something bigger - apply now!

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