About Plessey Photonics
We’re building the hardware foundation for next-era computing.
Plessey Photonics Systems is built on our existing technology capabilities at Plessey, a world-leading technology company driving the next generation of photonic devices and systems. With over seventy years of innovation, we combine research, materials science, process engineering, and manufacturing capabilities. Plessey Photonics Systems is defining next-generation optical interconnect technologies.
Join us to work on breakthrough technologies shaping the future of light-based technology and computing
Location
Based in Oxford
Our Values
Lead
We don’t follow industry trends; we create them, pushing boundaries and setting standards others aspire to. Every team member has the power to make decisions, drive change, and deliver excellence. We support each other, challenge one another for the best solutions, and lead by example. Together, we build industries and technologies that shape the future and scale toward our vision of the next era of computing.
Grow
We expand our capabilities every day — deepening our expertise, improving how we work, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Curiosity fuels us: we question assumptions, explore new ideas, and innovate with light-based technologies. By investing in and empowering our people, we strengthen Plessey’s impact and help shape the future of optical technology.
Trust
We operate like a family—honest, reliable, and supportive. We have each other’s backs, own our actions, and uphold the highest standards of integrity and safety. We trust each other to deliver, our customers to challenge us, and our expertise to guide the way. Together, trust enables the collaboration essential for breakthrough innovation and lasting impact.
About the Role
We are looking for a Senior FPGA Engineer to architect, design, implement, and verify FPGA RTL for our optical interconnect development. The work centres on high-speed digital logic, video processing and framing, high-speed serial interfaces, and the on-chip logic that connects our electronics to optical devices.
This is a focused, senior RTL role that runs from architecture and RTL design through simulation, verification, and timing closure to FPGA bring-up and characterisation on the bench. You will own the FPGA design end to end and set the RTL standard for others to follow.
You will work closely with the electronics, RF, and photonics engineers who design the surrounding hardware and optical interfaces.
Key Responsibilities
- Architect, design, implement, and verify FPGA RTL for high-speed digital, video, and optical-interfacing systems.
- Develop FPGA designs in VHDL or Verilog/SystemVerilog, including high-speed serial interfaces, video processing, framing, and on-chip instrumentation.
- Bring up and configure high-speed serial transceivers and clock-data recovery, and implement line coding, pattern generation, and error-rate instrumentation.
- Design digital video interfaces and the associated framing, timing, and data-handling logic.
- Develop functional verification: testbenches, simulation, and timing closure across multiple clock domains.
- Lead FPGA bring-up, debug, and on-board validation, resolving issues across the hardware and firmware boundary.
- Author and maintain RTL documentation, verification evidence, and coding standards, and contribute to design reviews.
- Collaborate across electronics, RF, photonics, and systems engineering, and support the path from prototype to product.
Experience & Attributes
- Degree (BEng/MEng) or PhD in Electronic Engineering, Computer Engineering, Physics, or a related field, with substantial relevant experience at senior level.
- Strong FPGA RTL design in VHDL or Verilog/SystemVerilog.
- High-speed serial transceiver and clock-data-recovery bring-up, and serial protocols such as line coding and PRBS.
- Functional verification: testbench development, simulation, and timing closure.
- Sound clock-domain-crossing and high-speed digital design discipline.
- Digital video interfacing (for example HDMI) or comparable high-bandwidth digital protocols.
- FPGA toolchain proficiency, and a willingness to work across vendor toolchains as required.
Advantage
- Schematic capture and high-speed PCB design using eCAD tools such as Altium.
- Knowledge of high-speed PCB layout techniques: controlled impedance, differential routing, length/skew matching, and power integrity.
- Signal-integrity simulation (for example HyperLynx, Ansys SI, ADS, or similar).
- Electronic interfacing to optical or other sensor/transducer devices.
- Test-and-measurement awareness — eye diagrams, error-rate measurement, and high-speed serial debug.
- A proven track record of delivering FPGA firmware into a product.
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