Principal FPGA Engineer

About BRINC:

At BRINC, we are building the technology that will define the future of emergency response. As a vertically integrated U.S. drone technology company, BRINC designs and manufactures unmanned aircraft systems, autonomous drone stations, command-and-control software, and advanced autonomy for public safety. Today, BRINC deploys Drone as First Responder (DFR) networks that dispatch drones directly to 911 calls, providing real-time aerial intelligence before ground units arrive and helping first responders make faster, safer decisions. BRINC serves more than 1,000 public safety customers across all 50 states, is the sole drone supplier to Motorola Solutions, and has raised more than $280 million from leading strategic and technology investors, including Motorola Solutions, Index Ventures, Sam Altman, Dylan Field, and others. BRINC is recruiting exceptional engineers to build the next generation of autonomous emergency-response technology, including flight-critical firmware and advanced pilot-assistance capabilities.

About this Role:

We are seeking a Principal FPGA Engineer to lead the design and development of advanced FPGA-based systems for our autonomous drones and public safety products. In this role, you will architect and implement high-performance video pipelines, sensor interfaces, and real-time processing systems to enable robust perception and data handling. As a technical leader, you will drive innovation, mentor engineers, and collaborate cross-functionally to deliver cutting-edge hardware acceleration and digital systems that enable real-world live-savings robotic devices in demanding environments.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the architecture, design, and implementation of FPGA systems for video, sensor, and communication pipelines.

• Develop and optimize logic for high-speed digital interfaces such as MIPI CSI/DSI, LVDS, HDMI, PCIe, and Gigabit Ethernet.

• Implement memory controllers, DMA engines, and streaming architectures to support real-time data transfer.

• Optimize FPGA designs for performance, power efficiency, and resource utilization.

• Collaborate with hardware, software, and systems teams to ensure seamless FPGA integration into embedded platforms.

• Implement FPGA acceleration for real-time image signal processing (ISP) and video enhancement pipelines.

Qualifications:

• Master’s or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.

• 7+ years of FPGA design and development experience in complex systems.

• Expert proficiency in Verilog, VHDL, and/or SystemVerilog.

• Strong background with FPGA vendor tools such as Xilinx Vivado, Intel Quartus, and ModelSim/QuestaSim.

• Experience with Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ or similar SoC/FPGA chipsets.

• Proven ability in high-speed digital design, timing closure, and FPGA resource optimization.

• Hands-on experience with board-level bring-up, lab instrumentation, and debugging complex FPGA systems.

Preferred Skills:

• 10+ years of FPGA design and development experience in complex systems.

• Familiarity with video/image signal processing hardware implementation.

• Familiarity with computer vision and perception algorithms and their hardware acceleration on FPGA.

• Experience optimizing video and sensor processing chains for low latency in autonomous systems.

• Experience with embedded processor integration (e.g. ARM cores, MicroBlaze, Nios II, or RISC-V).

• Experience with OpenGL. General experience with hardware acceleration of algorithms on modern GPU architectures.

• Knowledge of DDR memory systems, SERDES, and multi-gigabit transceivers.

• Experience developing FPGA systems for aerospace, defense, or safety-critical applications.

• Track record of leading technical projects and mentoring engineering teams.

BRINC Culture Values:

• Try the hard stuff

• Be innovative - Invent the future

• Move fast

• Listen to end-users

• Strive for excellence

• Don’t build a dystopia

• Be frugal

• Save lives through technology

If you’re interested in this role and in joining BRINC, we hope you’ll apply. We’d love to review your application and get to know more about you!

Benefits and perks listed below may vary based on the nature of your employment with BRINC and/or the country within which you work

• Comprehensive medical, dental and vision plans for our employees and their families

• 401K plan

• Maternity and paternity leave

• Flexible Time Off (Exempt) / Paid time off (Non-Exempt)

• Flexible work environment

• Orca pass (for those in Puget Sound)

• Free snacks, drinks and espresso (Seattle office)