FPGA Engineer - Radar

Stack

Responsibilities

• ▹Turn radar sensing requirements into FPGA designs for reliable drone detection
• ▹Define how radar data is acquired, processed, and delivered, working across RF, electronics, and software teams
• ▹Establish processing budgets and select implementation approaches based on detection performance, latency, numerical accuracy, and FPGA resources
• ▹Develop reference models to study radar behavior in noise and clutter
• ▹Build reusable RTL functions for waveform generation and receive processing in FMCW and pulsed radar systems
• ▹Implement target extraction stages, including matched filtering, pulse compression, range-Doppler processing, clutter rejection, and CFAR detection
• ▹Integrate ADC/DAC interfaces, coordinate transmit and receive timing, and ensure synchronization with the radar front end
• ▹Specify how detections and measurements are passed to tracking functions and embedded software
• ▹Verify designs against reference models through automated testbenches and hardware-in-the-loop testing
• ▹Investigate performance gaps on target hardware and improve the processing chain using laboratory and field results
• ▹Document design decisions, interfaces, and validation results

Requirements

• ▹At least three years of FPGA development experience, with practical exposure to radar or sonar processing
• ▹Ability to take a signal-processing function from an algorithmic description to verified RTL in VHDL or Verilog/SystemVerilog
• ▹Strong DSP foundations, including FFT, digital filtering, windowing, and the effects of quantization and fixed-point precision
• ▹Understanding of how radar systems estimate target range and velocity, distinguish returns from clutter, and set detection thresholds
• ▹Working knowledge of matched filtering, pulse compression, range-Doppler maps, and CFAR techniques
• ▹Familiarity with FMCW and pulsed radar, including the relationship between waveform choices, acquisition timing, and digital processing
• ▹Experience assessing radar performance through simulation, including signal-to-noise ratio and clutter effects
• ▹Experience developing testbenches, debugging FPGA hardware, and validating processing chains with hardware-in-the-loop methods
• ▹Master's degree or equivalent in Electrical Engineering, Signal Processing, Applied Physics, or a related field

Soft skills

About the company

Alta Ares is an air defense company building AI-guided interceptors against drones and cruise missiles, along with the software platform that powers them. Its customers are NATO-aligned militaries and defense institutions. Founded in 2024, it has grown to 90 people.