VLSI Staff Engineer

The ideal candidate has:

• Strong expertise in Verilog/SystemVerilog (or VHDL).
• Experience with ASIC design flows (synthesis, STA, lint, CDC).
• FPGA development experience (Xilinx/AMD, Intel).
• Deep understanding of digital design and timing closure.
• Experience with high-speed interfaces (PCIe, Ethernet, DDR, etc.) is a plus.
• Experience with image/signal processing, AI acceleration, or high-performance SoC design is a plus.
• Strong architectural thinking
• Technical ownership and accountability
• Leadership and mentoring ability
• Excellent analytical and debugging skills
• Strong communication skills in English
• Ability to manage complex, large-scale projects

Key Responsibilities:
1. System & Architecture Definition:

• Lead system and block-level architecture development.
• Translate product requirements into micro-architecture specifications.
• Perform architectural trade-off analysis (area, power, performance).
• Drive architectural reviews and design decisions.

2. RTL Design & Implementation:

• Develop high-quality synthesizable RTL (Verilog/SystemVerilog/VHDL).
• Design complex datapaths, pipelines, memory subsystems, and interfaces.
• Ensure timing closure and synthesis optimization.
• Conduct and lead design reviews.

3. Debug, Validation & Bring-up:

• Lead RTL simulation debug and root-cause analysis.
• Support FPGA prototyping and hardware validation.
• Drive silicon debug and post-silicon bring-up activities.
• Analyze timing, CDC, and functional issues.

4. FPGA Development:

• Implement and optimize ASIC designs on FPGA platforms (Xilinx/AMD, Intel).
• Develop FPGA-based demo platforms for customers.
• Support proof-of-concept and pre-silicon validation systems.

5. Technical & Project Leadership:

• Drive major development programs and coordinate multi-disciplinary teams.
• Define technical milestones and execution plans.
• Identify risks and implement mitigation strategies.
• Mentor junior engineers and provide technical guidance.

6. Customer Interaction:

• Act as primary technical contact for customers.
• Participate in requirement definition and solution architecture discussions.
• Present technical solutions and debug complex system-level issues.
• Support on-site or remote customer engagements.

Benefits:

• Competitive and attractive salary package
• Comprehensive health and medical insurance
• A wide range of professional growth and career development opportunities
• Exposure to diverse and challenging FPGA projects
• Opportunity to work with advanced technologies and modern FPGA platforms
• Collaborative and engineering-driven work environment

FotoNation is a company with an 18‑year continuous presence in the Brasov job market.
It is highly active in research and development of intellectual property.
The team designs, implements, and delivers low‑power RTL modules to customers for image processing and for accelerating the neural‑network inference pipeline on mobile devices.
We are interested in finding colleagues who are passionate about hardware design, FPGA validation and verification.