Digital Design Engineer

Job Description

We are looking for a new team member to focus on digital designs, digital signal processing, on FPGAs and embedded SoCs, for a variety of research and development projects with our quantum networking devices. Your role entails designing, building, testing, and documenting such systems, while keeping alignment with other scientists and engineers on the team.  You’ll be one of the core digital design engineers, a real hands-on coder, working on the core development of the FPGAs and SoCs. 

You’ll be really hands-on, on the breadboard, writing firmware to interface with controllers and peripherals (think both low- and high-speed devices, like data acquisition cards), and responsible for coming up with proposals to solve the team’s challenges: If the team needs something from the FPGA, RF, or SoC systems, it’ll be your job to figure out what the requirements truly are, find hardware to achieve it, design the dataflows, implement the firmware, and test your solutions. You are responsible for your sub-systems. You’ll integrate your sub-systems into the larger system, alongside engineers and physicists. You’re good at reading and understanding datasheets (they don’t scare you) and supporting documentation to figure out solutions, as well as finding components.

You are passionate about advancing quantum and networking technologies and want to contribute to new ground-breaking tech. Familiarity with quantum is not required (we’ll teach you that), but you do work independently, are a pro-active, hands-on person, and you can easily adapt to rapidly changing priorities. Above all, you’re a team player, and excited to work in a mixed team of hardware engineers, software engineers, and scientists.

Your Profile

You are someone with ideally with 2+ years of experience and,

  • Proven skills in digital signal processing (DSP), digital design, digital circuits, electronics, handling control loops, automating processes, and with practical experience with test & measurement equipment.
  • Experience with FPGA development, VHDL, Verilog, system Verilog, Vivado, embedded firmware, ideally Xilinx Zynq and Petalinux
  • Ideally in SoC development, with RF, in a professional R&D environment, ideally including formal processes and product delivery.
  • Experience in clock domain, clock domain crossing, timing issues analysis
  • A master’s degree in engineering, electronics, computer science, or comparable.
  • Experience with embedded C, C++, Linux, Python (especially for instrument control), and ideally also Rust.
  • Ideally, with experience in AXI Interfacing, SPI, TCL, other high-speed interfaces, and some ASIC experience.
  • Insightful hands-on experience with industry-standard EDA flows and methodologies.
  • Experience interfacing your work with embedded analog/mixed-signal design blocks, and with designs from other teams.
  • PCB Design experience, microcontrollers, low power tech, or experience in communications, telecom is not required but would be a plus.
  • Demonstrated skills in the entire development cycle (ideally at a commercial vendor of communications / security equipment): Design, implementation, review, unit and functional testing, test-driven development, simulation, version control (git), requirements and defect tracking, and hardware integration.
  • Eligible to work in the EU.

We don’t expect that the successful applicant will satisfy all the above points, but has expertise in key areas and significant knowledge in most other areas.

Who is Q*Bird?

Q*Bird is developing the hardware and software to enable quantum connectivity.  We invent, design, build, test, and produce systems for the next generation of secure communication: the quantum Internet. Our mission is to build quantum networking systems, support network building and work with industry and academia to accelerate the quantum Internet. Our devices combine developments on many fronts, from optical systems, high-end hardware platforms, robust embedded software, and new networking protocols. As such, our team is composed of experts with many different backgrounds in physics, engineering, software development, academic research, and real industry experience. We’re motivated to solve hard problems and bring quantum to reality. And we’re proud to be working on projects that matter and bring value to our commercial, industry and government partners. Our dreams are ambitious. And our growing team desires talented, curious, motivated teammates to help make quantum networking systems real.

We are a start-up located in Delft, the Netherlands, in the Quantum Delft ecosystem, with close partnerships with QuTech, Quantum Delta Netherlands and other quantum companies.

What Q*Bird Offers

  • Starting Date: Flexible
  • Full-Time Employment
  • Monthly remuneration with competitive salaries
  • Flexible working hours
  • 32 days annual leave and holiday allowance
  • Travel and personal care and growth allowance
  • Company-sponsored social events
  • A young, energetic, fun, team of highly skilled physicists, engineers, and industry expects, with an open working culture
  • An international team that places a value on equality and diversity, no matter the race, religion, background, gender, or any of the differences that give each of us that unique perspective to strengthen the team
  • Plenty of room for new initiatives and new ideas, and a chance to develop yourself at the cutting-edge of technology.
  • Opportunity to be part of the quantum revolution in a quantum start-up, and to build the next generation of digital infrastructure. Join us to create the Quantum Future!

How to apply?

To apply for the position or to learn more about the position, contact us at joshua@q-bird.nl