Senior Firmware (FPGA) Engineer

Location: Reading, United Kingdom

Thales is a global technology leader with more than 83,000 employees on five continents. With over 7,500 people in the UK, operating across defence, space, aerospace, and digital security, we help build a future we can all trust. Thales supports the security and stability of our nation by providing extraordinary technology to our customers, as well as delivering social value to the UK with our products and services.

Become a key part of a team with a proven track record for delivering firmware for a wide range of defence, related products. Typical firmware services provided: Architecture, requirements specification, design, verification and validation. Working in conjunction with systems, software and hardware engineers to develop electronic systems.

Projects involve using the latest industry class development tools for FPGA and system on a chip hardware technologies. Work is carried out to a structured firmware design process.

These roles can be based in Crawley or Reading and can support a mix of on-site and remote working. There is a requirement to spend periods of time at Customer sites and/or integration facilities.

As a People 1st Employer, we are passionate about providing you with opportunities to advance your engineering career and are committed to supporting our employees with professional registrations, membership funding and a wide variety of learning resources through our e‑Learning Engine. Development pathways include Firmware Architect, Firmware Engineering Manager, or a recognised Thales Specialist or Expert.

Each successful candidate will have demonstrable experience of Firmware engineering in the defence and/or transportation and/or aerospace domain and will ideally have experience interfacing with external customers as well as internal stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Work as part of firmware teams to deliver firmware projects to agreed time, cost and quality.
• Verify firmware using hardware verification languages or hardware description languages.
• Design firmware using hardware description languages.
• Enhance firmware related processes (documenting, scripting, reporting, process automation).
• Work closely with multi‑disciplinary teams.

Desired Knowledge, Qualifications & Experience

• Strong communication skills, verbally and in writing. A relevant degree (BEng, MEng, EngD, PhD) in electronics, supported by 5+ years of relevant experience.
• Membership or fellowship of a professional engineering body, preferably with or working towards chartered status.
• Previous experience working on Electronic Warfare projects would be advantageous.

Specialisation / Knowledge

• Leading firmware design/architecture
• Leading a small team of firmware engineers
• Verification test bench architecture with SystemVerilog or C++
• Verification methodology: Advanced VHDL verification or OSVVM/UVVM
• Requirements management: IBM Rational DOORS
• Simulation of designs using a simulator tool: Mentor Graphics Modelsim/QuestaSim
• Digital electronic design in hardware development languages: VHDL and either Verilog or SystemVerilog
• Implementation of complex designs using vendor‑specific development tools
• Technologies: PCIe, Ethernet, Serial communications, AXI4
• Object‑oriented design techniques
• Image processing techniques and algorithms
• Algorithm development using MATLAB
• Linux development environments
• Creation of firmware development plans and other design documentation.

The Successful Candidate Will Be Someone Who

• Is a team player with a “can‑do” attitude that performs effectively in a multi‑disciplinary team environment and promotes the values of inclusiveness and diversity.
• Is confident in their ability to solve complex problems, asks challenging questions to deepen their understanding, and suggests new ideas to further our product offering and increase our added value.
• Is a self‑starter, with the ability to manage their own workload and meet agreed objectives whilst contributing to the development and delivery of wider operational goals.

Security Clearance

Due to the nature of the work that we do at Thales, many of our roles are subject to security restrictions. This role requires you to be a UK national and achieve Security Clearance (SC) without any caveats. It would be advantageous if you currently hold it; however, if not, it is a requirement that the successful applicant undergo, achieve, and maintain SC Clearance prior to commencing employment. If approved by the MOD, a dual national from a Non‑ITAR country may be considered. You will need to have resided in the UK for the last 5 years, or in some circumstances a minimum of 3 years’ residence in the UK over the last five years may be accepted, with additional overseas checks.

Benefits

We offer private medical insurance, cycle‑to‑work schemes, employee discounts, paid volunteering days, stocks and shares, an annual bonus, and more depending on the role.

At Thales, we ensure equal opportunities, pay and working conditions for all.

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