FPGA Designer

Designer, FPGA

Reference# 31213

Waterdown, Ontario

About L3HARRIS WESCAM

As a subsidiary of L3Harris Technologies and within the Integrated Mission Systems Segment, the WESCAM division develops the most advanced optical sensor and targeting systems for global defense and military sectors, National Security, Search & Rescue and Airborne law enforcement agencies. From long-range covert surveillance missions to search and rescue operations, our MX-series systems, and the mission systems solutions they are a part of, produce stabilized high-magnification electro1-optical and infrared images from airborne, marine and ground based platforms, enabling our customers to see first and act first.

About the Role

We are a team full of bright and exceptionally friendly people who work together to create a wide variety of solutions to complex and challenging problems. In order to ensure exceptional results, our team creates reusable IP by following a rigorous process that begins with requirements, is supported by documentation and ends with verification.

Are you tired of critical customer bugs causing you to work every weekend? If so, you may be ready to trade some of your frustration for a process that has been proven to produce nearly perfect designs. Our team follows a standardized workflow and an efficient process that enables us to consistently create robust and reliable designs that our customers can rely upon. We focus our energy on future solutions, not fixing past mistakes.

Our team is split into two equally valuable groups. The Design team owns the design and is responsible for creating innovative solutions for our customers. The Verification team is committed to confirming that the modules we produce behave exactly as specified. Neither group could stand on its own, but together are successful. Our team of highly skilled individuals have both depth and breadth in their roles. We all perform some level of verification; we all participate in requirements definition & design engineering and we all take an active role in developing new design concepts and product launches.

An FPGA design cannot live in isolation and we collaborate regularly with other departments to ensure the best solution at the system level. This collaboration has earned us a reputation for producing high quality designs that are easy to integrate and actively supported. We track and report design progress so that our Leadership team can be well informed as they allocate resources.

We also understand the complex world of FPGA designs as a marathon, not a sprint. We recognize that being excellent in life goes well beyond engineering and includes actively participating in our communities and spending time with friends and family. With this in mind, we set aggressive but achievable goals that allow us to feel challenged while maintaining a work life balance.

Our team is full of people who are:

• Passionate about being excellent, yet humble enough to learn from others
• Collaborators who know that teamwork improves the results of independent work
• Excited to follow a workflow and process that will produce high quality designs
• Respectful while interacting with others, especially when they are wrong

Meaningful work and an exceptional culture make this a great place to work!

Primary Responsibilities

• Writing and validating FPGA design requirements
• Generating high quality documentation
• Creating FPGA designs using the VHDL language to achieve the requirements
• Integrating library modules within a larger FPGA designVerifying, testing and debugging in simulation (Questa Sim) and hardware
• Assisting the verification team as required
• Utilizing Xilinx design tools for synthesis, implementation, debugging and closure
• Following departmental practices and coding guidelines
• Participating in regular design reviews
• Presenting FPGA status updates at regular NPI project meetings
• Supporting product sustaining operations
• Providing input and support to others outside of the FPGA team
• Contributing to the team’s knowledge by sharing lessons learned
• Participate in company educational events and training as needed
• Propose ideas for, and participate in, continuous inter and intra-group innovation>

Required Capabilities

• Fluent in VHDL or fluent in Verilog but able to rapidly learn VHDL
• Competent in English to support development of written requirements, design descriptions and user documentation
• Proficient at finding and resolving bugs both through simulation and in hardware
• Comfortable generating timing constraints for multi clock domain designs using TCL
• Experience analyzing timing failures and making adjusts for timing closure
• Experience with revision control systems such as SVN or GIT
• Attention to detail, able to find subtle errors and identify corner cases
• Able to learn from and teach others

Recommended Skills & Knowledge

• Knowledge of digital signal processing techniques
• Experience designing systems for video
• Experience designing systems with AXI
• Experience designing with MPSoC
• Working knowledge of Linux command line interfaces
• Working knowledge of Python, System Verilog, TCL and Matlab
• Experience with DO254 or other standardized safety critical processes

Desired Education and Experiences

• Bachelor’s Degree and minimum 2 years of prior relevant experience, or
• Graduate Degree and a minimum of 0-2 years of prior related experience, or
• In lieu of a degree, minimum of 6 years of prior related experience.
• P.Eng certificate or the ability to obtain.

At L3Harris, we foster an inclusive and equitable workplace. L3Harris is committed to treating all employees and applicants for employment with respect and dignity and maintaining a workplace that is free from unlawful discrimination. For applicants with disabilities, we will provide you with accommodation so that you have what you need in order to be at your best.

L3Harris performs background checks prior to employment as all applicants must be eligible for registration with the Controlled Goods Program and obtain and maintain a positive security assessment. Some positions may require a government of Canada “Reliability” status and/or Level 2 (Secret) security clearance. In addition, L3Harris performs pre-employment substance abuse testing where required.