Staff Electrical Engineer – FPGA

About SirenOpt

At SirenOpt®, we are building the manufacturing intelligence layer for advanced materials. We help manufacturers visualize, understand, and control the material behavior that determines yield, performance, and safety across energy, aerospace, automotive, electronics, and semiconductor applications. 

We are working on this problem because advanced materials are becoming more critical and more complex, but the tools used to manufacture them have not kept pace. Manufacturers still lack real-time visibility into the small variations that shape quality on the line. We care because those invisible variations cause scrap, waste energy and materials, create higher costs, inconsistent product performance, and introduce avoidable safety risks. 

We developed PlasmaSens™, our manufacturing intelligence platform, to close that visibility gap and to lay the foundation for truly autonomous manufacturing. 

We are uniquely suited to solve this problem because our expertise and our platform connect material science, plasma physics, machine learning, and manufacturing in one system.  The same core technology works in-line, at-line, and off-line, and across form factors ranging from electrodes and wafers to 3D components. That flexibility lets us meet manufacturers where they are and carry insight from the lab into mass production. 

We have deployed multiple PlasmaSens products with customers and collaborators across the United States, Japan, Germany, and Taiwan.  We pair that real-world experience with support from leading US, European, and Japanese venture investors, the National Science Foundation, the California Energy Commission, and the Department of Energy.  Our combination of differentiated technology, manufacturing experience, and global scientific and industry partnerships gives us the foundation to solve material variability at scale. 

About the job

Job Title: Staff Electrical Engineer - FPGA / MPSoC Systems & Digital Signal Processing

Location: On-site (San Leandro, CA)

Job Type: Full-time

Role Overview

SirenOpt is looking for a Staff Electrical Engineer - FPGA / MPSoC & Digital Signal Processing Systems to lead the architecture, design, implementation, and validation of high-performance programmable logic, embedded processing, and FPGA-based digital signal processing systems powering our next-generation metrology platform.

This is a hands-on, high-impact role for someone who enjoys working close to the technology, solving hard problems quickly, and helping shape products in an early-stage startup environment.

This role is ideal for an engineer who is energized by deep tech, thrives in cross-functional environments, and is motivated by the opportunity to build something genuinely new.

You will work closely with a small, highly capable team to turn advanced sensing, digital signal processing, and control concepts into robust, high-performance, field-ready systems.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the architecture, design, implementation, and validation of FPGA, MPSoC, and FPGA-based digital signal processing systems for SirenOpt's metrology platform.

• Develop designs from concept through architecture definition, RTL development, modeling, simulation, verification, testbench development, bench testing, and system bring-up.

• Build and maintain robust simulation and verification environments to validate functionality, timing, performance, and reliability at both block and system levels.

• Design and implement FPGA-based digital signal processing pipelines for real-time sensing and metrology applications, including FIR filters, synchronization pipelines, control loops, and low-latency data paths.

• Implement, evaluate, and refine signal-processing and control algorithms such as PID, ADPLL, filtering, and signal-conditioning methods for high-performance measurement systems.

• Use MATLAB and Python for algorithm development, modeling, data analysis, system validation, and signal and electrical data characterization.

• Perform large-scale data analysis to evaluate signal quality, characterize system behavior, and guide design tradeoffs and performance optimization.

• Collaborate closely with hardware, electrical, software, algorithm, and systems engineers to support end-to-end FPGA, MPSoC, firmware, and hardware integration.

• Read and interpret schematics to understand board-level architecture, interfaces, signal paths, power domains, and subsystem dependencies.

• Bring up new boards in the lab, troubleshoot issues independently, and debug hardware/firmware interactions using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, signal generators, power supplies, and related lab equipment.

• Help translate frontier R&D concepts into scalable, reliable, and manufacturable digital systems.

What We’re Looking For

• B.S., M.S., or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field, with 5+ years of relevant industry experience.

• Strong experience with end-to-end FPGA and MPSoC design, including architecture, RTL development, simulation, synthesis, timing closure, verification, and board bring-up.

• Advanced experience with FPGA-based digital signal processing for real-time systems, including FIR filters, synchronization methods, streaming pipelines, and control-oriented digital design.

• Strong experience with algorithm modeling and analysis using MATLAB and Python.

• Experience implementing and validating signal-processing and control techniques such as PID, ADPLL, filtering, and signal characterization workflows.

• Strong command of HDL/RTL implementation for digital signal processing, control, and high-performance data-path design.

• Hands-on experience developing testbenches, verification environments, and bench-level validation workflows.

• Strong understanding of firmware/hardware integration and system-level debugging in tightly coupled digital platforms.

• Ability to read and understand electrical schematics and work effectively at the board and subsystem level.

• Proven experience troubleshooting and bringing up hardware in the lab using standard electrical test equipment.

• Experience working in a fast-moving, multidisciplinary environment with a high degree of ownership and technical independence.

• Strong communication skills and a practical, problem-solving mindset.

Nice to Have

• Experience providing technical leadership for hardware and firmware engineering teams in complex product development environments.

• Experience with image processing or vision-related algorithm pipelines.

• PCB design experience, including familiarity with board-level layout considerations and signal integrity tradeoffs.

• Experience with high-speed interfaces, instrumentation systems, or real-time sensing platforms.

• Familiarity with mixed-signal systems and integration with ADCs, DACs, sensors, and embedded processors.

• Exposure to metrology systems, scientific instrumentation, or advanced materials applications.

Base Pay Range

$180,000—$220,000 USD

Benefits

• Equity and Salary compensation depends on experience 
• Health, Dental, Vision plans provided
• 401k matching provided
• Time off: 20 days of PTO per year, plus approximately 15 paid US holidays per year